


something worth fighting for

by moonlitprincess



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/F, F/M, basically supergirl order of the phoenix tbh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-09-11 08:38:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8972332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlitprincess/pseuds/moonlitprincess
Summary: "Hogwarts was the same as it always was. Warm, exciting, unexpected, welcoming - Kara loved all of it. She loved the way she spied magic around every corner (actual real legitimate magic, not even in a metaphorical sense), she loved the elaborate feasts, she loved the intrigue of the classes, she loved Quidditch, she loved sneaking into the Ravenclaw common room in the evenings to get Winn & Alex's help for her homework. The only difference was this year, everyone was waiting for an attack from Lex Luthor, Clark wanted to create an army of students to prepare to face him and Lena Luthor had somehow become her friend. (Or girlfriend. Kara wasn't sure which one)."
OR
basically hp5 except supergirl





	1. back to hogwarts

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen/read so many supergirl hogwarts aus that I had to pitch in with my own bc I have so many ideas and I don't want to bombard people with headcanons 
> 
> I've never written (published) for supergirl before so hope it's okay! Also I know there's a lot of spec abt which houses people should be in so this is just my take ok, hope it's not too different from what you guys think XX (p.s. it's only 32 days til supergirl lives!)

It was drearier, quieter, more wary going back to Hogwarts than it had ever been in Kara’s four years there. 

As she shuffled back into her carriage, adjusting her glasses and making sure her wand was stowed beneath her robes, she watched the rain spatter on the fogged windows of the Hogwarts Express and managed a wry smile at how fitting the weather was to the mood of everyone returning to school that year. 

‘I _told_ my mom I needed new robes!’ sighed Winn, exasperated, glancing down at his too small trousers. ‘See, I wasn’t lying when I said I grew over the summer.’ 

Kara grinned at her best friend, who despite having claimed to have grown four inches over the summer, was still considerably shorter than herself. Rolling her eyes, she took a seat beside her sister Alex who was fiddling with a dark blue Ravenclaw tie, trying to loosen it. As Winn took a seat on Kara’s opposite side, her gaze fell to her cousin Clark who was sitting opposite Alex, head leaning against the window as he gazed out at the rainy countryside, evidently distracted. 

‘Hey. Clark.’ Kara kicked his shin lightly and he startled, looking up. A contrast from Kara, Winn _and_ Alex, Clark wore a scarlet and gold striped Gryffindor tie with his own house crest embroidered on his sweater and robes. 

‘What?’ he said, his voice a little hoarse from disuse over the last couple hours. 

‘You haven’t said a word this entire train ride,’ said Alex, arching an eyebrow. ‘You okay?’ 

‘Yeah,’ said Clark, not at all sounding like he meant it. ‘Fine.’ 

‘Clark, come on, you can’t keep beating yourself up about this!’ Kara said haughtily, a fierce protectiveness blossoming in her chest. ‘You’ve been down all summer, you never went hiking with us, you wouldn’t come to see all the Quidditch games Lois and Lucy’s dad got tickets for, you didn’t even _play_ Quidditch which is terrible considering _you’re_ the Gryffindor Quidditch captain this year -‘ 

‘Fine by me,’ shrugged Alex. ‘More chance for Ravenclaw to win the cup.’ 

‘Alex, that’s not my point,’ said Kara, glaring at her sister. ‘Clark, _please._ I know you’re angry at yourself but you’re only seventeen. It wasn’t your responsibility to stop him.’ 

‘He’s seventeen too,’ said Clark quietly, eyes flickering back to the gloomy landscape outside. ‘I _should_ be able to win a fight against people my own age.’ 

‘He’d prepared for that showdown Clark,’ said Alex, the nonchalance and slight teasing air to her voice gone. Her expression had turned serious and she leaned forward so she could lightly tap Clark’s knee. ‘Hey. Look. Lex Luthor had been making a plan for that day for months - maybe even years. You caught on to what he was doing a few _days_ beforehand and still managed to stop him from - ‘ She stopped, swallowing and glancing over at Winn. 

‘You can say it,’ said Winn, glancing up to look at the other three. ‘Clark stopped him from resurrecting my psychotic Dark Lord of a father.’ 

Kara sighed, eyes softening from the fierce glaze they’d had before and she placed a gentle hand on Winn’s knee. 

‘He killed a student, Alex,’ mumbled Clark, burying his face in his hands. ‘Killed one, injured three and hospitalised Professor Kenes. And I was _right there_ but I couldn’t _stop him_ \- ‘

‘Have you talked to Lois about all this?’ asked Kara, getting up and sitting beside Clark, tugging on his arm so that he’d face her. ‘You know she wants to know what happened, she’s been owling me all summer because of how worried she is about you.’ 

‘Yeah, I talked to her that night it all happened,’ murmured Clark, rubbing his eyes tiredly. ‘I sent her a couple letters from your house to let her know I was okay.’ 

‘Where is she anyway?’ asked Winn, scrunching his nose in confusion. ‘I thought she’d be riding with us.’ 

Clark hesitated before snapping his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose. ‘I broke up with her at the end of last year. The day we all went home.’ 

There was a brief silence in the carriage before it exploded in noise. 

‘You what?’ yelped Winn, eyes bugging wide. 

‘What the hell did you do that for?’ demanded Alex, slapping his leg sharply. 

‘Clark, what?’ shrieked Kara, giving him a less than delicate shove. ‘Lois is the best thing that ever happened to you! Why would you break up with her!’ 

‘I just needed some time to figure out where my head was after the tournament,’ insisted Clarke, flicking some hair off his forehead. ‘I’ll talk to her tonight, after the feast.’ At Kara’s disbelieving glare, he sighed over exaggeratedly and added ‘I _promise_ Kara.’ 

‘Good,’ she said, grumbling under her breath. ‘Because I like Lois and she already promised to make me a bridesmaid when you two get married and I’ve never been a bridesmaid and you’re not screwing that up.’ 

Clark spluttered an incredulous ‘ _What_?’ as Winn and Alex burst out laughing, and the mood cheered up considerably from there. The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful — everyone pitched in to buy some snacks from the food trolley (Kara buying about three times the amount that everybody else was and finishing hers about five times quicker), Winn and Alex played an extremely competitive game of exploding snap and Kara quizzed Clark on what she should be preparing for for her OWL exams in the coming year (something that had been worrying her all summer). 

As they edged closer to Hogsmaede station, there was a small tap on the glass of the carriage door and it slid open slightly. Kara glanced up and broke into a wide smile. 

‘Lois!’ she said and Clark jerked beside her, his head shooting up so fast that he could have snapped his neck. 

‘Hey,’ said Lois Lane, leaning against the doorway to keep the corridor clear. ‘I just wanted to check you guys were all okay.’ 

‘We’re fine!’ said Winn cheerily and Alex elbowed him in the ribs. 

‘She didn’t mean _you,_ ’ she said under her breath. 

‘Oh,’ said Winn, wincing as he rubbed his side gingerly. 

‘I’m okay,’ said Clark, a small smile on his face. ‘I swear.’ 

‘Mm hm,’ said Lois, raising an eyebrow. 

‘He is,’ said Kara. ‘I mean, obviously not completely right in the head because he broke up with you but mostly fine.’ 

Lois chuckled softly, rolling her eyes. ‘Well whenever things aren’t mostly fine, you know I’m still here.’ 

Clark’s eyes softened and he nodded. ‘Yeah. Yeah I know. Thanks Lois.’ 

‘Don’t you have a cousin, first year, coming to Hogwarts this year?’ asked Alex, sensing that it was time to change the subject. ‘You and Lucy are sitting with her, right? What’s she like?’

Lois groaned. ‘Classic Lane. Really high and mighty about pure blood status and has this ridiculous superiority complex. I’d forgotten why I don’t talk to my family members until now.’ 

Kara grimaced. The Lane family were one of the few remaining entirely pure blood magical families — the Luthors were another, but there weren’t many more as most had now decided in the last decade to marry half bloods, muggle borns or muggles, pure blood status be damned. Lex Luthor was an example of someone who’s family still believed in the superiority of pure bloods, hence why he’d been so determined to bring back the Toymaker (Winn’s father), who’d managed to elevate pure bloods to the highest ranks of power during his era and also terrorised muggle borns and muggles until his demise. 

The Lanes weren’t as extreme as the Luthors but Kara knew there was still a substantial amount of prejudice in many parts of the family, which she’d heard about the previous year when she’d become friends with Lois’s younger sister Lucy, who was a Gryffindor student in Alex’s year. (In actual fact, Kara had gone to the Yule Ball with James Olsen, also a Gryffindor 6th year, who was Lucy’s ex boyfriend at the time. The two had remained good friends so once Kara and James became close, she befriended Lucy in turn. In the end, although Kara liked James a lot, the two of them didn’t work romantically and eventually, he started dating Lucy again toward the end of the year but by then, Kara had no qualms about it and considered them two of her best friends at Hogwarts.)

‘Looks like we’re pulling in to Hogsmaede station,’ said Lois, craning her neck to peer out the window. ‘I’d better go back but I’ll see you guys at the feast.’ 

‘Bye Lois!’ said Kara brightly, the others echoing her sentiment moments after. 

‘Shouldn’t the Head Boy be helping organise students into the boats and the carriages?’ asked Alex pointedly at Clark. 

Clarke rolled his eyes and swiped at her half heartedly, grinning as she ducked from his outstretched hand. 

‘What about you, Kara?’ said Winn. ‘You’re fifth year Hufflepuff prefect.’ 

‘It’s just the Head Boy and Head Girl plus seventh year prefects helping with the escorting from the train to the castle,’ explained Kara. ‘But I’ll be helping take them to the common room after the feast.’ 

‘You haven’t left to go fulfil your duties yet, Kent,’ prompted Alex, prodding Clark in the stomach with her foot. 

’Yeah yeah, get off my case Danvers,’ Clark said but it didn’t have any hear to it. He stretched with a quiet yawn before hauling himself up to his feet and adjusting his tie. ‘You’re right though, I’d better go find Cat Grant.’ 

‘Oh, is she Head Girl this year?’ asked Kara in surprise. 

Clark nodded. ‘Merlin help me, she’s terrifying.’ 

‘You faced down Lex Luthor last year and you’re calling Cat Grant terrifying,’ deadpanned Alex, eyebrows arched. 

‘Look,’ said Clark seriously. ‘She could fry you on the spot with a single glare. I’m pretty sure she mastered non verbal spells like a _year_ ago, so she could stun me if I screw up and no-one would ever know.’ 

‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,’ quipped Winn, receiving a chocolate frog wrapper and an old copy of the Daily Prophet thrown at his face from Alex and Kara.

‘Alright, I’ll see you weirdos at the feast,’ said Clark, nodding at Alex and Winn and giving Kara an affectionate flick on the shoulder with a slightly deflated smile which dropped the minute he turned his back. 

 

* * *

 

 

‘I think Clark is currently the single most miserable person in the world right now,’ announced Kara as she, Alex and Winn jumped off the train and got engulfed in a sea of Hogwarts students. She folded her arms frustratedly and huffily blew hair out of her face. ‘I want to make him feel better — to cheer him up but I don’t know _how._ ’ 

‘Kara, no-one knows what he went through last year,’ said Alex softly, nudging her little sister to move forward through the crowds. ‘Just be there for him. That’s all you can do.’ 

‘And I think he’s got competition on the most miserable title,’ added Winn. ‘Look.’ He nodded towards one of the upper carriages and all their gazes flickered to a black haired girl with pale skin, cheeks red from the chilly night air and her eyes down, avoiding looking at anyone in the crowd around her. Despite her attempts to be invisible, she was still getting shoved around and a handful of students were glaring, some spitting names at her and others rushing away to be as far from her as possible. 

‘Lena Luthor,’ said Alex, sliding her hands in her robe pockets. ‘Wow, I totally forgot about her. Isn’t she your year?’ 

‘Yeah she is,’ said Kara, watching sadly as Lena dashed away from the spiteful students. ‘Slytherin, like Lex.’ 

‘They were super close too,’ Winn said. ‘She thought the world of him, although, she wasn’t the only one. Those douches over there are probably just yelling at her because they liked Lex just as much and feel guilty for being friends with a psycho.’ 

‘Doesn’t make what they’re doing okay,’ said Kara fiercely. ‘Imagine how much she must be hurting — how betrayed she must be.’ She turned to the others. ‘Do you remember? Just before Lex disapparated that night, do you remember her reaction? She was yelling, screaming at him to stop and asking why he was doing this and if he’d hurt anyone. He didn’t even give her a second glance.’ 

‘Maybe we can start a club,’ said Winn grimly. ‘ _The people we loved were murderous dark wizards and the whole world thinks we could be the same._ ’ 

Alex gave him a small slap over the head but she had a sympathetic grimace as she did. 

‘I hope she has some friends who’ll look after her,’ said Kara, worriedly chewing her bottom lip. 

‘Well maybe you can talk to her when you see her around school,’ suggested Alex. ‘For now, let’s just focus on actually getting to the feast through this mob.’ That however, was easier said than done because as always, the sheer number of students that crowded the platform made it near impossible to move let alone walk towards the carriages set up to take everyone to the castle. After nearly ten minutes of being jostled around by a sea of impatient teenagers, Kara spotted Clark usher what seemed to be the last group of first year students towards the dock and into the rowboats. 

‘Come on,’ she said, grabbing Alex’s wrist in one hand and Winn’s in the other. ‘Clark will have to go in one of the last carriages. If we stick with him, we can all go together rather than being trampled on the platform.’ 

‘Yes but how do we _get_ to him without being trampled?’ asked Winn. 

‘Hold on,’ said Alex, grabbing her wand from inside her robes and waving it inconspicuously from her side, muttering a soft spell under her breath before hastily stowing it away again. In front of the trio, students were suddenly jolted unceremoniously to the side and stumbling away to clear a path. 

‘Alex!’ hissed Kara. ‘You can’t — ’

‘Shh, let’s just go!’ said Alex, a wry smile on her face as she pushed Kara through the now cleared passage in front of them while Winn laughed quietly. They hung around with Clark until the madness settled and the crowd had almost completely thinned out. By then, Lois had joined them and the group of five walked over to where the carriages were waiting for the second to seventh year students. There were still three carriages waiting to be filled and a small mass of pupils still blocked their path so Kara, Alex and Winn followed Clark and Lois as they joined Cat Grant, who was checking that every student supposed to be at Hogwarts was here. She had her wand out and an enchanted dark blue clipboard was hovering in front of her, golden tendrils wrapped around it and small sparks emanating from it every time a student got checked by Cat’s wave of her wand. 

‘Whoa,’ said Winn, eyes widening. 

‘Cat Grant is crazy good at Charms,’ informed Alex. ‘She got the highest OWL score in it in recorded Hogwarts history.’ 

‘And who are all of you?’ asked Cat, seemingly uninterested and not turning to look at them. ‘I need to mark you off on the list.’ 

‘Danvers, Alex, sixth year Ravenclaw,’ said Alex promptly. 

With a flick of her wand, the clipboard immediately flicked to the appropriate page and a line appeared through Alex’s name. 

‘Schott, Winn, fifth year Ravenclaw,’ Winn piped up, wringing his hands in the same nervous way he did every time he was forced to tell someone his last name. Cat however, didn’t same to notice and just repeated the action she’d done with Alex gestured to Kara. 

‘And you?’ Her eyes strayed to glance at Kara and her eyebrows furrowed. ‘Why do you look familiar?’ 

‘She’s my cousin Cat,’ Clark explained. 

‘Ah,’ said Cat. ‘Explains that eager, happy-go-lucky, ready to sit and fetch expression on her face. Name, please.’ 

Clark turned his face to hide his snort of laughter but Alex had to completely turn away because she was giggling so hard at the scandalised look of contempt that had briefly appeared on Kara’s face. 

‘Danvers, Kara, fifth year Hufflepuff,’ she said, pouting as she stuck her hands irritatedly in pocket. 

After a couple of seconds of the clipboard searching, Cat reached out to grab it, frowning. ‘There’s no Keira Danvers on here.’ 

‘Oh, that’s because it’s not Keira, it’s Kara,’ said Kara quickly but Cat didn’t seem to hear her, just manually turning the pages and scanning each row of student names. 

‘Here,’ said Clark, leaning over Cat’s shoulder and waving his own wand. This time, Kara’s name was crossed off and Cat waved them forward. 

‘There’s one space on this carriage,’ informed the Ravenclaw seventh year prefect, ‘and there’s seven of you — which one’s going to ride with us?’ 

‘I will,’ said Cat. ‘I’ll see you in Professor Kenes’ office after the feast Kent.’ 

Clark nodded, giving her a half wave, half salute as she climbed onto the carriage and it began its route down the Hogsmaede road. The group of them all moved forward towards the last carriage standing waiting for them only for Clark to stop dead and stare at it as if he’d seen a ghost. 

‘Clark, what’s wrong?’ asked Kara, glancing over at him. 

‘What is that?’ he croaked, pointing in front where he was standing. 

‘There’s nothing there,’ said Alex, nose wrinkling in confusion. 

‘The thing right there!’ said Clark, clearing his throat and moving towards whatever he was seeing tentatively. ‘The creature pulling the carriage!’ 

At his words, Kara saw movement from beside the carriage and looked over, realising with a start that Lena Luthor was standing there, evidently hoping to ride to Hogwarts last and therefore avoid any other students. Given the expression on her face, she had obviously not planned on running into the very student who had faced off her brother the previous year. 

‘Nothing pulls the carriages Clark, nothing ever has,’ said Lois, placing a concerned hand on Clark’s arm. 

‘They’re called Threstrals,’ said Winn and everybody’s eyes shot over to him. ‘They can only be seen by people who have witnessed death.’ 

‘You can see them?’ said Alex, and Winn nodded. Kara’s stomach lurched at the implications of Winn’s answer. 

Clark turned to her immediately. ’Can _you_ see them?’ he asked her urgently. ‘You’ve seen — you saw — ’

‘I can’t see anything,’ said Kara, narrowing her eyes to try and focus. 

‘Why would Kara see something?’ asked Lois, but Alex spoke up first. 

‘If they _are_ Threstrals, then you have to have been able to accept and understand the death you saw,’ she said. ‘I’ve read about them, I just didn’t realise _they_ were what was pulling the carriages.’ She lowered her voice and put a gentle hand on Kara’s back. ‘You were just a baby Kara,’ she said. ‘You can’t even remember it — that’s why you can’t see them.’ 

Lois and Winn’s confusion was evident but neither of them pressed for any more information.

‘Winn, you’re the only other person here who can see them,’ said Clark, sounding a little desperate. ‘How do I know that’s what they are and I’m not just going crazy? I mean — you’re a little nuts.’ 

‘Thanks,’ said Winn with a glare. 

‘I can see them,’ said Lena suddenly. ‘It’s okay. I asked Professor Kenes about it when I first saw them my second year and they _are_ Threstrals. You’re not going crazy.’ 

‘ _Thank_ you,’ muttered Winn. 

After a couple moments of silence, Lois spoke up. 

‘We should go. We don’t want to be late for the feast.’ 

There was a quiet murmur of agreement and everyone clambered silently into the carriage and it set off down the pathway, the only noise being the wheels creaking and the leaves that were rustling under them as they moved. A chilled breeze came sweeping at them out of nowhere and Kara pulled her robes tighter around her. She had been excited for the feast but now her stomach felt funny. She didn’t often think about everything that happened when she was baby and now couldn’t seem to get rid of the thoughts from her mind. As if on cue, Alex’s arm snaked through hers, pulling her closer. 

‘You okay?’ Alex asked softly so only she could hear and Kara nodded, feeling a little warmth reignite in the pit of her stomach at the gentle smile on her older sister’s face. The rest of the journey was uneventful (apart from the scolding they got upon arrival from Professor Marrow for being late) and as soon as they entered the castle, the same buzzing, kindling excitement that Kara found so familiar from being at Hogwarts came rushing back. 

It wasn’t until halfway through the feast when Kara glanced over at the Slytherin table absentmindedly and spotted Lena picking at her potatoes that she remembered what Lena said. 

_I can see them. I asked Professor Kenes when I first saw them my second year._

Kara blinked, gazing intently at Lena’s thick black hair, now tied in a messy high ponytail, at her pale skin, hollow cheeks, sad green eyes and the way she seemed to curl in on herself as if trying to make herself disappear. 

As Kara hesitantly returned her attention to her own meal, she couldn’t help but think — there seemed to be a lot more to Lena Luthor than meets the eye.

 

* * *

 

 


	2. house of el

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the one where kara gets nightmares, maggie & alex are fierce quidditch rivals (while winn thinks they're mean to each other because they're in love) and lena joins the gang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUYS thanks so much for the positive responses here omg I'm so flattered! I love this AU so much, i've already written scenes for it from different parts of the story, now it's just a matter of connecting them all hehe 
> 
> I'm sorry I didn't update earlier, I was on holiday and didn't have my laptop so couldn't write anything but here we go, finally. There's a ton of Zor-El backstory here and it got a little angstier than intended but there's some Winn x Alex dorking around to lighten it up too plus the brief introduction of Maggie! enjoy you beautiful people XXX

The screams were muffled, as though from underwater or another room, but were getting louder and more terrified as each moment ticked past and every time a bloodcurdling shriek ripped through the shaky silence, Kara pressed her hands harder over her ears and curled into herself, her entire body trembling. Bright flashes of green lit up the dark night from the window that Kara could just see to her left, almost hidden by a large oak wardrobe in front of it. 

_Pretend they’re fireworks_ , she thought, teeth sinking into her bottom lip to suppress the sob working its way up her throat. _They’re fireworks — this is a big party. Noone’s screaming. They’re all celebrating. Just stay quiet. Stay quiet. Stay quiet._

The mantra repeated in Kara’s head over and over again, morphing from her own voice to another familiar one, one that sounded just like her mother’s but wasn’t, one that had a slightly stronger bite, more wit but was still laced with concern and love. 

‘Stay quiet Kara darling,’ murmured Astra, appearing out of nowhere and gently wiping the tears from Kara’s cheeks. ‘I know you’re scared baby girl but you need to stay quiet. Mommy and Daddy will be here soon. Be brave for us Kara.’ 

Suddenly she was gone and more screams tore through the air, another flash of green illuminated the sky like lightning. And then, like actual fireworks, a cacophony of colours exploded alongside the green lights — red, blue, gold, silver, hitting the glass of the window and shattering it. But they were fighting back the green, beating it away and instead of screams, there were yells of defiance, anger, determination — 

A cry of grief pierced through the night and it was so anguished that it felt as though someone had curled their fingers around Kara’s heart and tugged. 

‘ _Astra_!’ the voice screamed. ‘ _Astra wake up_!’ Kara squeezed her eyes shut, rocking back and forth, mumbled words chanted on her lips as she recognised the voice of her mother: ‘please find me Mom, please find me, please find me’ — 

‘Where’s Kara?’ someone else shouted. ‘Kara! Kara, where are you?’ 

‘She’s not going to come find you Zor, she’s a baby, we need to go find her ourselves — ’

‘Alura, Zor, there’s no way she survived this kind of attack — they’ll tell You-Know-Who that you weren’t killed and then he’ll come back for you. With Jor-El and Lara dead, you two are the pillars of the resistance and are in the most danger — we need to get you out of here, _now_!’ 

‘ _No_ — I’m not leaving until we find Kara!’ 

‘What about Kal-El? Was he here?’ 

‘No, he was with Ry and Francis. Kenes is taking him to a safe place now, he thinks You-Know-Who will come after him too, which is why we need to get you — ’

A hoarse yell cut off the unfamiliar voice and the poisonous, murderous emerald flash erupted from the outside courtyard and chaos broke again — ‘ _They’re back, they came back!_ ’ and ‘ _Oh my God, Alura it’s him! He’s here!_ ’,chorused with loud cracks of apparating and snarls of vicious spells muffling into a distinct sound of _danger._ And then suddenly, a hand grabbed Kara and pulled her close, low and comforting and gentle. 

‘It’s okay Kara, it’s Dad — we’re getting out of here. We’re going to be okay.’

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kara woke with a hoarse scream, drenched with sweat and her entire body shaking. Her stomach was somersaulting, green lightning still flashing in front of her eyes and it took a moment for her to remember how to breathe. After several minutes of heavy gasping in attempt to suck enough air into her lungs, Kara managed to realise that she _was_ safe — she was at Hogwarts, in her four poster bed with her favourite quilt kicked down at her feet and her clothes still half unpacked and strewn at her bedside. She blindly reached out to the table next to her bed and curled her fingers around her glasses, shoving them on with a little too much force and swinging her shaking legs over the edge of her bed. 

‘Kara? Are you okay?’ 

Kara let out a croaked yell in surprise at the voice that broke the silence, instinctively grabbing her wand and whirling around to point it at the source of the noise only to be facing a worried looking Meera Leade, who also had her wand in front of her. 

‘You were crying in your sleep,’ said Meera, shuffling to the edge of her own bed to move closer to Kara. ‘Are you alright?’ 

‘Nightmare,’ Kara rasped out. ‘I — I need to go talk to — ’

‘Kara, it’s four in the morning,’ said Meera. ‘Teachers are patrolling the hallways at night in case of a Lex Luthor attack. There’s no way you’re getting anywhere without a detention for being out after hours.’ 

‘I thought that Ministry woman forbade the teachers from patrolling at night?’ said Kara, her voice beginning to sound somewhat normal again. 

‘What, Halser? The woman who looks like a toad?’ 

Kara couldn’t help but snort with laughter at that. ‘Yeah, her.’ 

‘You really think teachers like Kenes, Marrow, or J’onzz are really going to listen to a word she says?’ said Meera with a wry smile. ‘Even Snapper hates her and we used to think he was the worst thing to happen to Hogwarts. Even if the Ministry is trying to cover up Lex Luthor trying to bring the Toymaker back, the teachers are loyal to Kenes which means they believe it.’ 

‘Do you?’ asked Kara, roughly pushing some hair off her face and letting out a tired sigh. It hadn’t occurred to her over the summer that people may not believe Clark with what he said about Lex and the Toymaker. She knew the Ministry was trying to ignore it but it had been a shock over the last couple of weeks at Hogwarts to realise that alongside the people who believed Clark and were now terrified of a Luthor attack, there were also people who thought that Clark and Kenes were both nuts and that the Ministry was telling the truth. 

‘Believe it?’ asked Meera and Kara nodded. ‘Yeah. There’s no way all this weird stuff that’s happening is a coincidence. Muggles disappearing, Dementors showing up everywhere, shops at Diagon Alley closing down, the Ministry desperately trying to cover their tracks — _something_ ’s going on and Lex Luthor turning to the Dark Side and trying to bring back the Toymaker makes the most sense.’ 

Kara gave her a grateful smile. ‘Thanks. It’s nice to know that not everyone thinks Clark is crazy.’ 

Meera’s eyes softened and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure none of the other girls in their dormitory were awake. ‘Kara, are you sure you’re okay? That looked like a hell of a nightmare.’ 

Kara’s stomach somersaulted again and she nodded uncertainly. ‘Y … yeah.’ She rubbed her eyes a little too forcefully and gulped down any lingering fear. ‘I’ll talk to Alex about it tomorrow. Sorry I woke you, Meera.’ 

Meera shook it off and gave Kara a lingering look of concern before extinguishing the light from the tip of her wand and rolling back into bed, leaving Kara sitting on her own in the pale light of the early morning from the window to the left of her bed. 

Her mind was racing. 

She had been two years old when the Toymaker and his followers had attacked the Zor-El mansion, trying to eliminate the largest family in the Toymaker’s resistance. Having been so young, Kara didn’t have any memory of the massacre — all she knew was that someone had hidden her away in one of the bedrooms and then afterwards, her father had found her, and somewhere in between, the rest of the Zor-El family sans Clark had been murdered. Then, Kara and her parents had been whisked away to a safe house where she grew up for the next five years. 

But now?

Now, Kara knew that her aunt Astra had been the one to hide her, that had her parents not insisted, nobody would have come and found her, that the Toymaker himself had come back to try and finish the job once his followers had reported that Zor and Alura had survived and fought them away, only for them to escape from his grasp again _and_ with Kara too. 

Kara could barely breathe. Why now? Why was she remembering this now? Was it because of the Toymaker almost coming back? Was it because Lex Luthor was free falling the Wizarding World into the same chaos it had been in when her family had died? Was it because of the Threstrals that had sparked the thought of the massacre in Kara’s mind? 

Despite what she had told Meera, she knew that Alex wasn’t the person she had to talk to here and funnily enough, neither was Clark. But what she _did_ know was that with the majority of the Hogwarts staff patrolling in case of an attack, she would most definitely have to wait til morning.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Kara’s stomach was still in knots four hours later, so instead of heading to the Great Hall for breakfast, she headed out to the lake, flopping down under one of the willow trees and gazing out at the still water, watching the way the sun sparkled over the surface as it rose higher and higher into the sky. There was a soft breeze that rippled through the trees every once in a while, and had Kara been concentrating on the day she had ahead, she would’ve appreciated that today was perfect flying conditions which was great given that all four houses had Quidditch tryouts today. But instead, Kara couldn’t stop thinking about the screams she’d dreamt of the previous night, now echoing in her head, and the green of the grass in front of her was just reminding her of the flashes of the killing curse she couldn’t stop seeing every time she closed her eyes. 

‘Kelex?’ she whispered, resting her head on her knees as she said it. The peace of the morning was broken by a loud _crack_ and Kara looked up to see an elf with large eyes, perky, pointy ears and a wide smile standing in front of her, hands behind his back and bowing low when she met his gaze. 

‘Mistress Kara,’ he said warmly. ‘What can I do for you?’ 

Kara tucked some hair behind her right ear as she tried to formulate a subtle way of asking what she wanted to ask, eventually just deciding to be blunt. 

‘Kelex, were you at the Zor-El mansion during the massacre?’ she asked quietly, watching the elf’s reactions carefully. 

Kelex’s bug-like eyes flickered with surprise and he shook his head slowly. ‘No Mistress Kara. Master Jor-El ordered all us elves to disapparate as soon as the attack began. He told me to apparate to Professor Kenes and inform him of the situation.’ 

‘ _You_ told Kenes?’ said Kara, sitting up straighter. ‘As soon as the attack started?’ 

‘Yes ma’am.’ 

‘Did Kenes send anybody? The Order? Aurors? Reinforcements?’ 

Kelex shook his head again, somber. ‘Not straight away Mistress Kara. He told me to wait there and then he disapparated. When he returned, he had Master Kal with him. _Then_ he sent Aurors from the Order to the Zor-El mansion where they intercepted your parents returning home and they all fought back the Toymaker’s followers. When the Toymaker came back for your parents, those Aurors defended the house while your father found you and brought you and your mother to safety.’ 

Kara let out a shaky exhale, rubbing her eyes roughly as though it would rid her of her confusion. 

‘ _Why_?’ she murmured aloud. ‘Why would Kenes get Clark before sending anyone to save us? Clark was already safe!’ 

‘I do not know Mistress Kara,’ said Kelex, seeming distressed at his lack of being able to answer. 

‘No, no, it’s okay Kelex,’ said Kara quickly. ‘I was just — thinking aloud. I should let you get back to work.’ 

Kelex bowed low again before disappearing with another _crack._ Kara groaned, burying her face in her hands. Instead of answering her questions, Kelex had just made everything _less_ clear. Kara had never really felt the need to dwell on the events of that night — she barely remembered it. She’d spent more time crying over the death of her _parents_ than the rest of her family because though she hadn’t been there for the latter, she’d been older so the loss had hurt so much more. She’d always been calmed by the reminder that her parents’ death had been a catalyst to the Toymaker’s downfall, and that despite their death, she’d been reunited with Clark for the first time in five years _and_ had gone to live with Alex and her parents. But now, Kara had memories of the massacre. She had knowledge that for whatever, inexplicable reason, Professor Kenes had chosen to go find _Clark_ before sending help to the rest of the family. 

Of course, Kara didn’t entirely reject that decision — Clark had been her one connection to her family after her parents’ death and Kara couldn’t imagine the past eight years of her life without him. 

‘I just wish I could understand what was going on,’ she muttered to herself. 

‘What was going on when?’ 

‘ _Merlin’s beard_!’ Kara yelped, almost banging her head on the low hanging branch of the willow with how high she jumped. ‘ _Alex_! A little warning next time!’ 

‘What are you doing here?’ demanded Alex, flopping down beside Kara and turning to face her with anxious eyes. ‘You weren’t at breakfast. _You_ , Kara Danvers, perpetually hungry, was _not_ at breakfast.’ 

For the first time in years, Kara found it strange to hear her name as Kara _Danvers._ Her thoughts had been so focused on her birth family since her nightmare, that she’d almost forgotten that her name _wasn’t_ Kara Zor-El anymore. 

‘Kara,’ said Alex, shaking her a little. ‘Are you okay? What’s going on with you?’ 

‘Nothing!’ said Kara, managing to plaster one of her regular smiles on her face. ‘Just a little worried about Quidditch tryouts.’ 

‘Liar,’ accused Alex, arching an eyebrow. ‘There’s no-one trying out for the Hufflepuff team that’s a better flyer than you are, you’ve got no reason to be worried.’ Her eyes softened and reached over to take Kara’s hand. ‘Kar, talk to me. You haven’t been acting like yourself since Clark and the Threstrals.’ 

‘I’m _fine_ ,’ lied Kara. ‘This whole Ministry interfering in Hogwarts thing and Lex Luthor terrorising everyone is just scary. That’s all.’ 

‘I hope you know I see right through you,’ said Alex. ‘I don’t believe you for one second.’ 

‘Well, that’s your problem,’ said Kara sharply. Alex’s eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped a little in surprise at Kara’s tone. Her fingers loosened against Kara’s and she made a move to get up but Kara tightened her hand around Alex’s again. 

‘I’m gonna be late for Ravenclaw tryouts,’ said Alex quietly, trying to get to her feet but Kara tugged her back down. 

‘Don’t leave,’ she begged. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night.’ 

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Alex, relenting to sitting again. ‘Meera Leade told me at breakfast when you didn’t show.’ 

Kara let out a soft laugh. ‘Of course she did.’ 

‘You used to tell me stuff Kara.’ 

‘I still do!’ insisted Kara. ‘I’m not trying to shut you out here.’ She ducked her head, sighing heavily. ‘I’m sorry Alex, I just … it’s stuff about what happened to my family and we never talked about any of it after Jeremiah disappeared and I didn’t want to remind you of that.’ She shrugged, smiling wryly. ‘Plus, look how crabby it makes me.’ 

‘I know exactly how crabby you can be,’ said Alex with a grin, nudging Kara. ‘I’ve been living with you the last eight years, remember?’ As Kara let out a small laugh, Alex let her free hand drift to adjust Kara’s crooked tie. ‘And I’m your sister Kara. Whatever you tell me, however much you snap at me, I love you. No matter what.’ 

Another laugh, this one a little teary, slipped past Kara’s lips and she leaned in the rest her head on Alex’s shoulder. 

‘I don’t know what I’d do without you,’ she murmured. 

‘Be late for Quidditch tryouts,’ said Alex promptly. ‘Come on — Hufflepuff is up first and there’s no way you’re playing without eating breakfast first.’ 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The inevitability of being back at Hogwarts was that Kara had immediately been swept up in everything that accompanied any return to school, and so until her nightmare, she’d had very little headspace to spend much time dwelling on the Triwizard Tournament’s ending, on Lex Luthor, Clark’s wellbeing, Threstrals and Winn and Lena’s ability to see them or on Lena Luthor herself. 

In fact, Quidditch tryouts was the first time Kara saw Lena since the feast. It was the second Saturday back at Hogwarts, which meant that most of the school had had enough time to adjust to being back and was now eagerly anticipating the start of the season. Having a group of friends spread over three of the four Hogwarts houses most of whom played Quidditch meant that by the time Alex found her by the lake, Kara was already in her Quidditch gear, ready to buckle down for a day of flying, playing and watching her favourite sport in the entire world. It turned out Clark had asked to have the first slot, so Gryffindor ended up trying out first at nine a.m., Hufflepuffs at eleven, Ravenclaws at one and Slytherins at four. After Kara disposed of her broom along with the rest of her kit in the changing room in the designated Hufflepuff corner, she made quick work of spying Winn, Alex and Lois sitting in the stands and hurried over, taking a seat beside Winn and gathering her hair up to tie it in a ponytail. 

‘This year’s my year,’ said Alex, rubbing her hands together eagerly. ‘I am going to kick Clark’s _ass._ ’ 

‘He’s gonna have Lucy _and_ James on his team Alex,’ said Lois with a chuckle. ‘Not to mention Maggie Sawyer, who’s probably one of the best beaters Hogwarts has ever seen.’ 

‘That might be so but she’s never managed to knock me off my broom,’ said Alex, smirking. 

‘Yeah well we’ll see about that,’ said a voice calling out from in front of them and the group of four all glanced up to see a dark haired, olive skinned Gryffindor hovering in front of them, sitting back on her broom, hands resting on her thighs and a smug grin plastered on her face. ‘This is the year I send you flying off your broom Danvers.’ 

Alex scoffed, folding her arms. ‘You think after five years of trying you’re actually gonna succeed? In your dreams Sawyer.’ 

Maggie shrugged. ‘We’ll see. Catch ya on the pitch Danvers,’ She winked. ‘Try not to get too down watching us play.’ She did an elaborately show off-y loop-de-loop in the air before soaring back down to the ground to join Clark, James, Lucy and a gaggle of other Gryffindor tryouts. 

‘I could hex her,’ growled Alex. ‘I dream about doing that. Sometimes I wish I was a beater _just_ so that I could send a bludger her way for once.’ 

‘It’s okay,’ said Winn, biting back his wide grin and gently patting Alex on the shoulder. ‘The Ravenclaw tryouts are looking pretty great and you’re gonna be the best captain we’ve had in years. Don’t let Maggie get into your head. Oh — there she is!’ 

‘Who?’ asked Kara, glancing to where Winn was looking. 

‘Lena Luthor,’ said Winn. ‘I invited her to hang out with me and Lois while we watched you guys try out. I figured she could use some friends seeing as all of hers seemed to have scarpered after the Lex thing.’ 

‘Winn, that’s so sweet!’ said Kara, beaming at her best friend. 

‘You just want to start your _our family were dark wizards_ club,’ said Alex dryly, throwing a sweat towel at Winn when he grinned sheepishly. 

‘It was nice of you to invite her though Winn,’ said Lois, sipping the butterbeer she’d slipped out to the pitch in a Muggle thermos. ‘Lex always used to tell Clark and I about how amazing of a flyer she was. She doesn’t play Quidditch because she’s not much of a team sports person but she _loves_ to fly.’ 

‘Hey Lena!’ said Kara cheerfully once Lena was in earshot. ‘Glad you could make it!’ 

‘Thanks for letting me hang out with you guys,’ said Lena a little shyly, fiddling with the hem of her sweater as she spoke. 

She, like everyone else who wasn’t trying out, was wearing regular clothes but Kara could see the Luthor’s wealth in how she was dressed: nothing was ripped (purposeful or otherwise), everything seemed to have a gloss or a glow to it, nothing was frayed at the edges, no colours were faded. Kara remembered the way Lex had dressed on weekends and days off in previous years — sharp black trousers, expensive sweaters, specially designed t-shirts and jackets. Lena however, had obviously tried very hard to not look like her brother. She was wearing dark grey jeans, mud splattered leather boots and a navy blue turtleneck sweater with her hair bundled up in an untidy bun, loose strands framing her face and blowing slightly in the breeze. 

Before Kara could reply to her or ask her to sit down (preferably beside her), Alex let out a disapproving scoff, pointing at the pitch. 

‘She thinks she’s _so_ fancy doing a fifty foot dive for no good reason!’ she muttered, scowling. ‘Beaters don’t _need_ to do fifty foot dives. Show off.’ 

Lena furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. ‘…Who …?’ 

‘Maggie Sawyer,’ informed Winn promptly. ‘She and Alex have been Quidditch rivals since their first year.’ He elbowed Alex in the ribs lightly. ‘Did it ever occur to you that she’s just pulling your pigtails?’ 

‘What?’ said Alex, glancing over at Winn looking utterly perplexed. 

‘You know. Like kids do. When they’re playing. The whole thing where little boys pull little girls’ pigtails because they actually like them? Maybe Maggie is being a little girl pulling _your_ little girl pigtails by trying to show off at Quidditch.’ 

‘ _What_?’ said Alex again, this time spluttering on her words and looking incredulous. ‘Winn, maybe Clark’s right and you _are_ crazy. There is _no way_. Maggie and I _don’t_ like each other and it’s because of _Quidditch_ , okay?’ 

But her cheeks were turning a dark pink and when Winn pointed that out (as well as saying ‘Nobody said anything about _you_ liking _her_ Alex, you said that yourself — ’), she reached back and shoved him off the bleachers, ignoring his yelp as he fell to the floor with a crash. 

‘First year?’ said Lena, sitting down beside Kara. ‘Didn’t they only start letting first years play a few years ago?’ 

‘The same year Alex and Maggie joined Hogwarts,’ said Kara, speaking to try and distract herself from how warm Lena felt sitting so close to her.

‘They, along with my sister Lucy were the youngest three Quidditch players to be drafted to Hogwarts teams in a decade,’ said Lois, smirking as Winn emerged from between the bleachers, rubbing his head and wincing. 

‘They lifted the first year ban that year,’ Kara continued to explain. ‘But out of the dozens of students that tried out, Maggie, Alex and Lucy were the only three that made their teams.’ 

‘And seeing as Clark and Alex were already friends through Kara, and Lucy was friends with Clark through James, Alex and Lucy became friends so had a more friendly inter-team rivalry thing,’ Winn piped up, glaring at Alex as he hauled himself up onto a seat again. ‘But Alex and Maggie however, was a different story.’ 

‘Ravenclaw won the cup that year,’ said Alex smugly. 

‘And then when James joined the team the next year, Gryffindor knocked Ravenclaw out of the water,’ reminded Lois and Alex’s smirk disappeared. 

‘And then Hufflepuff won the next year when Kara joined the team,’ said Winn, giving Kara and affectionate punch in the arm. ‘Kara and Alex are basically each other’s biggest fans so now, Alex and Maggie are desperate to have one up on the other seeing as they each have a win each.’ 

‘This year, I’m captain and we are _going_ to win,’ muttered Alex through her teeth. 

‘James, Clark, Lucy _and_ Maggie,’ Lois sang in reminder, spluttering when she too had a sweat towel thrown at her and hitting her in the face, rolling her eyes as Winn, Kara and Lena all burst out laughing.

‘So you don’t play Quidditch?’ asked Kara to Lena, pulling her foot up to the bench to tighten the laces on her boots as Gryffindor’s tryout started winding down to a close. 

‘I prefer watching it,’ admitted Lena, hugging herself tightly as a particularly cold gust of wind came rushing through the stands. ‘I like to fly though.’ 

‘You should swing by at the end of one of our practices!’ said Kara with a wide smile. ‘Sometimes we all show up as a team finishes up and we’ll play a fun game. You don’t even have to play, you could just fly with us.’ 

Lena smiled, her cheeks flushed and Kara couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from her invitation. 

‘You don’t have to invite me just cause you feel sorry for me,’ said Lena, eyes darting down to her lap. 

‘I’m not!’ insisted Kara, her hand flying up to Lena’s arm to turn her so they were facing each other. ‘Seriously, we’ve only got seven people so our teams are never even. It’d be cool to have someone else there to balance it out.’ 

‘Really?’ said Lena, glancing over at the other three. 

‘Honestly,’ said Lois gently, giving Lena a soft smile. 

‘And Winn could share his proposal about the club he wants to start with you,’ chuckled Alex, only for Winn to give her a taste of her own medicine and shove her off the bleachers. 

‘What club — ?’ Lena began but Kara just shook her head. 

‘Best if you didn’t ask about it yet,’ she advised, eyes sparkling with amusement. ‘You might run for the hills thinking we’re a bunch of nutcases.’ 

‘Me? Run for the hills?’ said Lena, raising an eyebrow. ‘If you haven’t noticed, that’s generally what people do when _they_ meet _me._ ’ 

‘Guess you’ve found the perfect crowd then,’ said Alex, emerging from the floor and blowing hair off her face. 

Kara wasn’t sure that anybody had ever smiled as brightly as Lena did in that very moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are what keep me motivated so please tell me if you liked it!!! lots of love XXX 
> 
> p.s. supergirl is like 18 days away y'all and lena & kara grow "closer" omg  
> p.p.s. merry christmas and happy new year even though it's late


	3. i must not tell lies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the one where lena and kara have one of the many oncoming deep, meaningful conversations & detentions become a much more serious affair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i am warning you guys now, this chapter is L O N G. like, i'd had ideas for what i wanted to write for it and then i tried today and didn't stop. it's a little angsty and very plot heavy, so I hope it's okay! 
> 
> hey ! we're ONE WEEK away from supergirl lives!!! how nuts is that! XXX

 

In the two weeks that followed,Kara was struck by how easily Lena fit into her already established group of friends at Hogwarts. It wasn’t as though Lena was a hard person to like — in fact, quite the opposite. She was smart, sharp-tongued, witty, funny yet still warm and generous. And it wasn’t as though the rest of her friends were unwelcoming — again, quite the opposite, as their friend group had rapidly expanded over the years. But what Kara found baffling was how hard it was to comprehend that Lena _hadn’t_ always been a part of the group — she fit so perfectly that it was as though she’d always been there. 

She had the same snarky, sarcastic sense of humour as Winn, was the only person in the group who could rival Alex’s knowledge in Potions and Ancient Runes, knew almost as much about the Ministry of Magic (from successes to flaws) as Lois, could pull out of a fifty foot dive sharper than Lucy, was as open to helping anybody as James was and she was the only person in the Wizarding World who was angrier than Clark at what Lex had done. 

Kara found that she and Lena could talk for hours on end about anything and still have more to say. Over the last fortnight, they’d done homework together, compared flying techniques, complained about their (lack of) teaching in Defence Against the Dark Arts, laughed over Alex and Winn’s bickering, speculated quietly about Lex’s current whereabouts and vented about the Ministry shutting down Clark and Kenes’ statements. 

‘I bet my mom’s a part of the cover up,’ said Lena one night, the second Wednesday after Quidditch tryouts. The whole group had piled into the Hufflepuff common room to do the homework, which had currently been abandoned as their conversation topic fell onto the Ministry. 

‘She still has power in the Ministry?’ said Lois in surprise. ‘Even after what her son did?’ 

‘Yeah well the Ministry doesn’t _believe_ he did it, do they?’ said Alex, resting her chin on her knuckles. ‘Lena’s mom would only be deemed suspicious if they believed Clark and Kenes.’ 

‘Fudge believes it,’ said Clark tiredly, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. ‘He’s just too afraid to admit it to himself. He doesn’t want to believe he’s got a second Wizarding War on his hands — he’d rather believe that this is some elaborate plot of Kenes’ to take over the position of Minister.’ 

‘Is _that_ what he thinks is going on?’ scoffed Winn. ‘If Kenes wanted to be Minister of Magic, he would be. Hasn’t he turned down the job like fifty times? He’s Headmaster for a reason — because he doesn’t want to _be_ Minister.’ 

‘I used to want to work for the Ministry of Magic,’ said Alex, shaking her head. ‘But with this whole debacle, I don’t think so anymore.’ 

‘I still do,’ said Lois. ‘I think _because_ of this whole debacle, there needs to be people there fighting for the right cause.’ 

‘Is that what you’re going to do after you graduate?’ asked Lena. 

‘I’m not sure,’ said Lois, her eyes flickering over to Clark. 

‘I’ll join the Order,’ said Clark. ‘I wanted to be an Auror but they’re not going to let me work for them. Not right now anyway. The best thing to do is become a part of the organisation who’s actually playing a part in this fight.’ 

‘Yeah, don’t let Halser hear you say that,’ said Lucy, shaking her head. ‘I heard Cisco Ramon talked back at her over what she was saying in class the other day and now he’s got detentions lined up for the rest of the week.’ 

‘I can handle detention,’ scowled Clark. 

‘Not hers,’ said James. ‘Cisco looked _bad_ when I saw him walking back to the Ravenclaw tower. Like, _injured_ bad. I don’t know what she did to him but I don’t think it’s legal.’ 

‘She’s directly reporting to Fudge,’ said Alex with a grimace. ‘She can do whatever she wants and call it legal. Didn’t you hear what she said at the start of year feast?’ 

‘ _Progress for progress’ sake must be discouraged_ ,’ quoted Kara, adding a little ‘ _hem, hem_ ’ cough afterwards that had everyone bursting into laughter at the impression. 

‘Yeah, but what does that even mean?’ asked Lucy once they’d all caught their breath a little. 

Alex exchanged a dark glance with Lena, who seemed to have already worked it out. 

‘It means,’ Alex said quietly, looking serious, ‘that the Ministry’s going to be interfering at Hogwarts.’

 

 

* * *

 

 

Despite the ominous nature of their discussion that night, it wasn’t difficult for any of them to put it aside for the time being and get on with life at Hogwarts. Now that Kara and Winn (and of course Lena) had reached their fifth year, every one of Kara’s friends (along with herself) were burdened with the pressure of keeping up good grade averages. While Kara, Winn and Lena had to prepare for their OWLs at the end of the year, Alex, Lucy and James had to get high enough grades for the subjects they were taking currently in their sixth year to be eligible to take their NEWT exams the year after, which was what Clark and Lois were agonising over. That, plus the majority of them trying to fit in Quidditch practices was enough to put worries over the Ministry’s place at Hogwarts to the back burner. 

Or at least, it _was_ until one of _them_ got a detention. 

It’d been a good day. A _really_ good day. Better than the usual good day. So in retrospect, Kara felt that she should’ve known that the universe was preparing her for something pretty awful. But at the time, she’d been too caught up in how happy she was to even consider that it was balancing out something to come. 

For the first time this year, she and Alex had had a free period coincide and so had spent it playing one-on-one Quidditch the way they used to when they were much younger, when Alex was first teaching Kara how to play. That had been before Alex had gone to Hogwarts and just after Kara had come to live with the Danvers’ — Alex had been nine, Kara was seven. She remembered how strange it was to be allowed to play outside, to fly, to go with Alex to the Muggle market on Saturday mornings that was just fifteen minutes walk away, and once Alex had gotten used to suddenly having a little sister, how nice it was to have this one familiar thing: a person who seemed intent on looking after her. 

The summer before this year had started, Lucy, James and Winn had come to stay at the Danvers’ home. (At the time, Lois had said that she already had plans with other members of the family but now Kara knew it was because she and Clark had broken up). But the summer had been so full of their friends that Kara had barely realised that she and Alex had spent precious little time together, so having an hour and fifteen minutes just to play Quidditch with her was almost too good to be true. 

The day had continued on its cheery circuit when Hufflepuffs and Slytherins finally had their first Transfiguration class for the year. (It wasn’t that it was Kara’s favourite subject, not by a long shot — in fact, of all subjects, she preferred Charms and History of Magic. The one reason Kara had been looking forward to Transfiguration all month was that it was her only class with Lena.) The timetables had been meddled with (Kara guessed it was Halser) which had led to a mix up resulting in Kara’s class having to wait almost a month for their first Transfiguration lesson. Their teacher, a sharp-tongued but extremely intelligent witch — Professor Marrow — was not at all impressed with the circumstances. 

‘I apologise profusely for your unfortunate situation with this class,’ she said, her eyes narrow and lips pursed tightly as she spoke. Everyone in the room could tell that she did not in the slightest believe that _she_ should be the one apologising. ‘You’ve been disadvantaged in your learning and are now almost two weeks behind the rest of your year for OWL level Transfiguration.’ Her eyes flashed with annoyance and she carefully repositioned her wide, square-lensed glasses higher up on her nose. ‘However.’ Her eyes lightened a little and she allowed them one of her rare, genuine and encouraging smiles. ‘I have known almost all of you for four years now and regard you all as extremely intelligent and capable students. I am sure you will all adapt to the circumstance and make the most of the time you are given. Now please take out your text books and begin by reading chapter six and making notes on what you see as the key parts in performing Vanishing Spells. Once you have completed this, you may come to the front and collect a snail, with which you will practice such spells.’ 

‘She’s my favourite teacher,’ said Lena in a low voice from beside Kara as they both pulled their books out of their bags. The class broke into a quiet hum of noise as everyone began retrieving their own books and wands, some setting out to complete the task and others immediately starting to chat. 

‘Really?’ said Kara, flipping her book open to the appropriate chapter but not even casting a glance at the title, her gaze fixed on Lena. ‘I mean, I’ve always liked her. She’s a little scary but she’s a good witch. I’ve just never been good at Transfiguration, I guess.’ Her eyes drifted to study their teacher, trying to pinpoint where Lena would find a favourite in her. 

Marrow was one of the younger members of the staff — somewhere between thirty-five and forty years old. Despite her age however, she was the Head of Gryffindor house and had been at Hogwarts since before Clark had arrived. She had brown skin, eyes that reminded Kara of the murky green of the lake on Hogwarts grounds, high cheekbones and thick eyebrows that made her glares sterner and smiles warmer. There was something curiously inviting about her despite her stiff posture and sharp nature.

‘She took me aside the night of the third task last year,’ said Lena, and as Kara returned her attention to the girl beside her, she noticed a sad smile on Lena’s face at the memory. ‘Kenes was busy trying to calm Clark down and figure out who the traitor had been in Hogwarts who’d helped Lex figure out how to bring back the Toymaker. Professor Marrow came and found me as soon as Kenes told her what was going on, and she brought me to her office.’ Lena ducked her head, her thick, jet black hair falling a little over her face as she did and Kara guessed it was a deliberate attempt to hide her expression. ‘I was a mess that night, Kara. Lex was my best friend — he was my favourite person in the entire world. I couldn’t believe he could be possible of doing something like this let alone leaving me behind without so much as an explanation.’ Her voice hitched a little as she spoke and her hand flew up to her face to harshly wipe her eyes before she could properly start crying. 

Kara reached out and caught hold of Lena hand on its downward descent back to her lap and Lena glanced up, surprised. 

‘You don’t have to tell me,’ Kara said, squeezing Lena’s hand tightly. ‘You don’t owe me any kind of explanation — ’

‘That’s why I want to tell you,’ said Lena with a small smile. ‘I trust you.’ 

Kara’s lips curved upwards, her smile mirroring Lena’s and she nodded. ‘Okay.’ 

‘Marrow let me cry my eyes out, scream, yell, demand that someone found Lex because _obviously_ he was being _Imperiused_ , this couldn’t _possibly_ be true. Eventually, when it sunk in and I found it in myself to go back and think about any signs that could have pointed to this, I realised that it really _was_ happening and I just … fainted.’ Lena let her elbow rest on the desk in front of them, her head falling to rest in her open palm and her somber eyes focused on Kara. ‘When I woke up, I was in the hospital wing but Marrow was still there, sitting beside me. She held my hand and told me that although it didn’t seem like it now, I was going to be okay and that nothing Lex had done was a reflection on me. She made sure I understood before I went home that none of it was my fault. She knew I’d have a tough time over the summer — Lex was Mom’s favourite so going home would be rocky and coming back to Hogwarts this year would be just as bad. But Marrow was the person who made me feel like I was capable of getting past that, even without someone like Lex having my back.’ 

‘You have me,’ said Kara immediately, her hand clutching Lena’s again. ‘I promise Lena. you’ve got me.’ 

The smile on Lena’s face was as bright as it had been the day of Quidditch tryouts and Kara was almost blinded by the beauty of it. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Again, in hindsight, Kara should’ve seen that something bad was coming. And given that Transfiguration’s timetable errors, all the little changes at Hogwarts, the more gloomy nature of the castle and the way every single teacher was on edge was almost _entirely_ due to Halser’s presence, Kara probably also should’ve sensed that the Big Bad Thing that was coming would have something to do with _her._

It started between History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Kara, Alex and Winn were all heading in the same direction — Alex had Ancient Runes on the same floor as Kara and Winn had Defence Against the Dark Arts and was promising the younger two that she would give them her notes from last year seeing as Halser was useless, but also reminding them that last year was the year they’d all been taught by a murderous psychopathic Toymaker follower in disguise. 

The three of them were halfway to class when Lucy skidded to a halt in front of them, making Winn jump, Kara shriek and Alex crash into Kara’s shoulder. 

‘ _Merlin’s beard Luce_!’ yelped Winn, adjusting his robes. 

‘Sorry,’ said Lucy, grabbing Kara’s shoulder and gasping in a sharp breath. 

‘Where the hell have you come sprinting from?’ asked Alex, arching an eyebrow. 

‘Gryffindor … common … room,’ said Lucy breathlessly. ‘Alex … can … you — ?’ She motioned a vague wand movement. 

‘What’s that supposed to mea— ’ Winn began but Alex had already drawn her wand and pointed it at Lucy, flicking it sharply upwards and murmuring something that was incomprehensible to Winn or Kara. Immediately, Lucy’s wheezing stopped and she straightened, letting out a tired huff. 

‘Thanks,’ she said, shaking hair away from her eyes. 

’No problem,’ said Alex, stowing her beneath her robes. ‘What’s up Luce? We’ve got to get to class.’ 

‘Are you guys free tonight?’ asked Lucy, lowering her voice and stepping closer to the three of them, her eyes wide and brimming with anxiety. 

‘Yeah, Winn and I are,’ said Kara. 

‘Me too,’ Alex said with a nod. 

Lucy wrung her hands together, her expression somewhere between angry and nervous. Kara had never seen her so on edge, not even before a Quidditch final. 

‘Hey,’ she said, reaching out to place a gentle hand on Lucy’s arm. ‘What’s going on?’ 

Lucy sighed, worrying her bottom lip with her front teeth. ‘It’s Clark. He got a detention with Halser last night and … remember what James said about Cisco?’ 

‘Yeah, that he seemed injured?’ said Winn, furrowing his eyebrows in concern. 

‘Well he was right and wrong,’ said Lucy, shaking her head in definite anger. ‘You guys, it’s so much worse than we could’ve imagined. And Clark’s got another detention _tonight_ , and every day this week.’ 

‘What’s she doing to him?’ demanded Kara, her chest constricting with fear. 

‘I … I can’t explain it,’ said Lucy, running her fingers roughly through her hair. ‘Look, just be at the Gryffindor common room tonight okay? Nine o clock. Clark’s detention starts at eight so he should be done by ten. The only way you’ll believe it is if you see it. The password is myrtlesap. Lois and James will be there, and so’ll Cat Grant — she was there when he came back last night and she’s gonna pass the message on to Lena because I know none of you have classes with her for the rest of the day.’

‘Lucy, it’ll be okay,’ said Kara, stepping towards Lucy, sensing the growing panic in the older girl. 

Lucy’s eyes met Kara’s and for the first time in the four years Kara had known her, there was no fire, no determination, no courage or fierceness in Lucy’s eyes — just terror and helplessness. 

‘The thing is Kara,’ she said, her voice barely a whisper, ‘I don’t know if it will.’ 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The knowledge that the toad-faced, Ministry loving, lying, manipulating _hag_ standing in front of her was the reason her cousin was currently in some sort of pain and would be for the rest of the week, did not do well for Kara during Defence Against the Dark Arts. It’d already been established that Halser had no intent to teach them any sorts of defensive magic and was instead enforcing a Ministry approved curriculum that saw no students having any ability to fight in any way whatsoever, which fit perfectly with what Clark had said the night they all speculated about it — Cornelius Fudge was afraid of a takeover from Kenes. 

But right now? Right now, Halser was talking. They weren’t silently copying useless, pre-first year level notes on defensive magic, they weren’t watching Ministry videos about how _safe_ the Wizarding World was. No, Halser was talking about how dangerous it was to _lie_ and spew _propaganda_ in the aim of getting attention and maintaining a title given to you as a child. 

In other words, she was talking about Clark.

‘I’m sure a lot of you are wondering about the things Clark Kent has been saying about Lex Luthor and the attempted resurrection of the Toymaker,’ said Halser, her voice squeaking a little on the _k’s_ of Clark’s name. 

Kara saw Winn’s eyes fall nervously onto her as her hands curled into an enraged fist in her lap. 

‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ he murmured. ‘You heard what Lucy said.’ 

Kara didn’t reply. 

‘This. Is. A. _Lie_ ,’ said Halser, her voice dangerously soft.‘Clark Kent was the sole survivor of a terrible ordeal when he was a small child, yes, and then another horrifying incident when he was ten years old.’ Her eyes lingered on Kara with every sweep she made across the room.

Kara swallowed, her nails digging into her palms. She couldn’t know. There was no way. Clark, his adoptive parents, Kara, _select_ members of the Order _,_ Alex and her parents were the only ones who knew the truth. 

That Clark hadn’t been at the mansion the night of the massacre. That _Kara_ was the one who was there, that _Kara’s_ parents survived too and the three of them lived in hiding for five years. That the Toymaker had eventually tracked them down and come after them, that he’d killed Alura and Zor but because _by chance_ , Kara had snuck out to play a little further from the house than usual and because of how secretive the protection plan had been, the Toymaker and his followers had never realised that the little girl they passed in the meadow down the road was the daughter of the resistance members they’d just killed. Nobody knew that it was from Kara’s safe house that the Toymaker got the coordinates for where Clark was hidden — Clark, he knew about — and that before she died, Alura Zor-El had sent an emergency Patronus to the Order of the Phoenix and alerted them that the Toymaker was coming after Clark, that the Order had taken the Dark Wizard down just as he was about to strike the then ten year old Clark with the killing curse. Clark had been given the title _The Boy Who Lived,_ the rumour was started that he’d survived twice. Soon, the whole Wizarding World believed that Clark had been the child to survive the massacre at the mansion and had been sent to live with Muggles for his safety, and at ten years old, he accepted it, he made the Order _promise_ not to set things straight because he didn’t want Kara growing up in the shadow of the tragedy of their family. He would, yes. But not Kara. Kara would be adopted by the Danvers — the Order members who explained Clark’s magic to him when the Kents informed them that he was starting to question the strange powers he had. Kara’s relation to him as her cousin would be justified by the fact that the Danvers’ were a half-blood family — the Kents were muggle relatives. 

But Halser couldn’t possibly know this. Kara’s heart thundered in her chest as the woman stalked in front of her desk and stared down at her for a moment. _She couldn’t possibly know._

‘It is so easily to believe everything told to us,’ said Halser, resuming her pacing. ‘But there is no _danger_ out there. Lex Luthor was a boy who got a taste of greatness during the Triwizard Tournament and decided he no longer felt the need to study magic at school and was adept enough to enter the real world.’ 

‘The real world,’ scoffed Kara under her breath. Her fists were balled so tight, she was sure she was drawing blood.

‘Kara,’ Winn warned. 

‘The Toymaker _did_ kill the entire Zor-El family in a _terrible_ massacre twelve years ago,’ continued Halser. ‘ _Hem, hem._ But that ultimately led to his death. And he is _dead_ children. Nobody tried to resurrect him — in fact, _hem, hem_ , that is impossible!’ 

‘So, what?’ demanded Kara, the wooden legs of her chair screeching loudly against the stone floor as she shot up to her feet. ‘So Clark’s lying is he? Telling a big story for what? Attention? Unless you’re actually as _stupid_ as you look, he’s not exactly getting great attention is he? Half of the people who used to be his friends now think he’s crazy. He wouldn’t _make up_ a story like that!’ 

‘Kara!’ begged Winn, tugging her robes. 

‘Miss Danvers,’ said Halser, halting her paces in front of Kara’s desk and turning sharply so that she was face to face with Kara, her heels screeching louder than Kara’s chair against the stone of the floor. ‘Clark Kent is a deeply troubled, deeply traumatised young man. These _stories_ , these _lies_ are his cries for help. If you really cared about him, you wouldn’t indulge in these delusions — ’

‘They’re not _delusions_!’ shouted Kara, her fingers itching for her wand with an instinct she’d never had before. ‘So according to you, Niall Mallox just dropped dead of his own accord last year, did he?’ 

‘The death of Niall Mallox was a tragic accident from the Triwizard Tournament,’ said Halser but there was an edge in her voice that was not there before. ‘Something that _was_ warned about when the tournament started — ’

‘Kenes was hexed!’ Kara continued, her mind foggy with unbelievable rage. ‘Three students were injured! That wasn’t the _tournament_! Lex Luthor _has_ turned to the Dark Side, Clark fought him and Lex _did_ try and bring back the Toymaker, Clark _stopped it_ — ’

‘Detention Miss Danvers!’ said Halser loudly, her eyes flashing with a dark sense of triumph. ‘And I advise you stop spreading the same lies as your cousin unless you want to join him in a detention every day of this week.’ 

‘She won’t,’ said Winn, grabbing Kara’s hand and pulling her back down to her seat. ‘She … she won’t. She’s sorry — please don’t give her a detention.’ 

‘I’m afraid that damage is already done,’ said Halser, a condescending smile on her face. ‘Although Mr Schott, it is nice to see you have evidently learned from your father’s mistakes on how to be a productive member of society.’ 

Kara saw a moment of vivid fury alight in Winn’s eyes but it disappeared quickly and he looked away from Halser. 

‘Eight o clock tonight, this classroom please Miss Danvers,’ said Halser. ‘Do I need to write you a note or will you remember?’ 

Kara forced herself to glance up and meet Halser’s eyes even though her entire body was shaking with anger. ‘I’ll remember,’ she said through her teeth. 

‘Good,’ said Halser. ‘Now can you please all turn to chapter five.’ 

 

 

* * *

 

 

Kara avoided The Great Hall and all the common rooms for the rest of the day — she knew Winn would tell everybody about her detention and though she wasn’t keen to get chastised and reprimanded about how _stupid_ it was to yell at Halser, more than the disapproving lectures from the rest of her friends, she wouldn’t be able to take Alex’s worry. Instead, she summoned Kelex and asked him to bring her food to the Astronomy Tower where she sat watching the sun drift lower towards the horizon, the sky turning into a pale peachy pink and eventually, a dark navy blue littered with sparkling stars and a small sliver of moon, barely visible beside a whisp of cloud. 

Kara walked into Halser’s classroom at seven fifty-eight, her eyes darting around to try and find familiar, comforting faces that could make whatever hell was coming a little easier to manage. She spied Cisco Ramon, who was a Ravenclaw in her year, and gave him a short wave. He wasn’t surprised to see her — he’d been in class during her outburst — and he returned her greeting with a half grimaced smile. 

‘Kara!’ 

Kara turned to see Clark staring at her with wide, horrified eyes. 

‘Hey,’ she said, stepping towards him. ‘Are you okay — ? Lucy never told us what happened — ’

‘You can’t be here,’ croaked Clark. ‘She can’t do this to you. Why are you here?’ 

‘She was saying all this awful stuff,’ said Kara, frowning in confusion. ‘Hang on — didn’t Winn tell you at lunch or dinner?’ 

‘I haven’t seen anybody since third period,’ said Clark, and Kara noticed he’d pulled the sleeve of his right arm over his hand. ‘Kara, what’d you _say_?’ 

‘I wasn’t gonna let her tell everybody those lies about you and what happened,’ said Kara defiantly and Clark groaned. 

‘ _No_ , don’t say you’re here because of me …’ 

‘I’m not,’ said Kara firmly, glaring at him. ‘I’m here because of _me_ Clark. I can handle it, okay?’ 

‘Quiet!’ said Halser sharply. ‘It’s now eight o clock. Everybody please take a seat. No two people at one table, no talking, no bathroom breaks.’ 

Clark looked pained as he gave Kara one last stare that almost seemed _apologetic_ before taking a seat in the far right column of desks. Kara sat down in her usual Defence Against the Dark Arts seat — in the middle group of desks, first row — and waited for Halser to give her instructions. 

‘For those of you who have had a detention with me before, you know what to do,’ Halser said, a sweet kind of satisfaction in her voice as she spoke. ‘There are a few of you here who have not, however.’ 

Kara’s eyes flickered around the room and she noticed a couple of other people she vaguely knew — Sara Lance, a seventh year Slytherin who Kara was _sure_ wouldn’t have held her tongue if Halser was spreading lies, and a third year Gryffindor Wally West who’s older sister Iris was in Kara’s year. There were a few others, most of whom either looked stubborn, defiant or terrified. Kara relaxed a little when she saw them all — solidarity in numbers, she thought to herself. 

‘You all have a quill and some parchment in front of you,’ said Halser sweetly. 

Kara glanced down. In front of her was a neat, pink piece of parchment and an unusually sharp quill. 

‘You are all to write _I must not tell lies,_ ’ said Halser, still sweet but this time softer in that dangerous, threatening tone that she’d used in class earlier in the day. 

‘How many times?’ asked Sara Lance in a tone that could barely scrape by as _polite._

Halser smiled and Kara’s stomach clenched. 

‘Let’s say … as long as it takes for the message to _sink in._ ’ 

Kara picked up the quill in slightly shaking hands and realised with a start what she was missing. 

‘You haven’t given me any ink,’ she said, staring down Halser’s gaze. 

‘Oh, I think you’ll find you won’t be needing it,’ said Halser. ‘ _Hem, hem_.’ Her regular cough almost sounded like laugh and a burst of fury erupted inside Kara, just like it had in class. She glanced over at Clark, who’s eyes were watery with _tears_ as he gazed at her, expression still remorseful and apologetic and he mouthed ‘I’m so sorry’ before letting his attention fall to the task in front of him and beginning to write with a dry quill. Kara ignored her confusion and did the same, also setting aside the soft hisses of — _pain? were people in pain?_ — that were echoing in the quiet classroom, quickly accompanied by gasps of surprise and the clattering of a quill being dropped to the floor. There was a flurry of scuffling as whoever it was bent to pick it up. Kara resisted the urge to turn around and find out who it was, instead scribbling down her required sentence — 

_I must not tell lies._

Her jaw dropped in surprise as the ink came out a dark, watery red. Was it an enchanted quill? But she barely had time to think about it when a sudden, stinging, burning pain came from the back of her hand and she repressed a shout of horror when she saw the words she’d just written carved into her skin, as though by a knife or scalpel. She stared it in disbelief. No sooner had the words appeared, raw and cut and bleeding, the skin healed over and left her hand aching, redder than it had been but smooth, as though nothing had happened. Kara’s eyes shot up to look at Halser, who was watching her intently. 

‘Problem, Miss Danvers?’ she asked with a smile. 

’N… no,’ said Kara, ignoring the feeling of Clark looking at her. 

She pressed the nib of the quill to the parchment again, wrote _I must not tell lies_ once more and felt the searing pain shoot through her hand, cut open the skin in her own handwriting and then heal over again. Kara blinked back tears that pricked her eyes and blurred her vision, refusing to give Halser the satisfaction of seeing her cry. Again and again, she wrote, yet not once did the gasps of pain stop piercing the air as the dry quills unevenly scratched against the parchment. The sky outside grew darker until the navy blue Kara had left to turned into a dark, thick black. She had no idea when Halser would tell them to stop, when it would be over. The skin on her hand was no longer smooth after every line — there was a clear marking of the words scratched into her pale skin, surrounded by red and even smudges of blood. She refused to show signs of weakness — that was what Halser was waiting for, and everybody in the room seemed to be following the same logic. 

After what must have been at least three hours, Halser looked up from her pile of essays that she’d been looking through. 

‘Stop please,’ she said and Kara let the quill fall from the her fingers immediately with relief. Her hand dropped to her lap and she cradled it carefully against her middle, trying to keep her breathing even but her skin was quite literally throbbing and she was sure the minute she got out of this classroom, she was either going to throw up or pass out. 

‘Kent, Ramon and Lance,’ said Halser delicately. ‘All three of you know to come back tomorrow, same time, same place. The rest of you — I hope this made … a deep enough impression. I hope to not have to see you here again. Dismissed.’ 

There was a rush of scuffling feet as everyone hurried to the door — it banged open, the small group of eight tumbled out of the classroom and Sara slammed the door shut behind them. As soon as the fierce determination and stubbornness to not show pain, not show weakness, _not let Halser win,_ disappeared, as soon as the the adrenalin vanished, Kara’s knees buckled and she felt Clark’s arms catch her as she went hurtling to the floor, dizzy and light headed. 

‘I can’t feel my hand,’ Kara choked out and Clark gently pulled her back into a standing position, his arms tight around her and holding her upright, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. 

‘I know,’ he murmured. 

‘I can’t _believe_ — ’ Sara growled, sounding venomously angry as she examined her hand. She turned to a second year Ravenclaw girl who had burst into tears as soon as she’d left the classroom and softened, abandoning her own blistering hand and dropping down to a crouch to take the younger girl’s instead. ‘It’s okay sweetie — it’ll stop hurting soon. Come on, let me take you to the hospital wing and we can get you something for the pain.’

‘Iris is gonna go ballistic when she sees this,’ said Wally, wincing as he ran his thumb over the wound. ‘I hope she’s asleep — I’d rather show Barry first so he can talk her out of doing something stupid like hexing Halser in class.’ 

‘Yeah, Iris has a killer bat-bogey hex,’ said Cisco with a wry grin. ‘C’mon lil West, let’s get you back.’ He glanced over at Clark and Kara. ‘You comin’ back to the Gryffindor common room Clark?’ 

‘Nah, I’m gonna take Kara back — ’

‘No,’ said Kara, interrupting him. ‘Everyone’s waiting for us at the Gryffindor tower. We should go, or they’re gonna worry even more — it’s already past eleven and Lucy thought we’d be done by ten.’ 

Clark didn’t seem to have it in him to argue and so pulled Kara closer and followed Cisco and Wally as they headed down the hallways. Kara barely paid attention to the route they were taking —her hand now was almost numb but there was a dull ache that came from below the surface, making it difficult to move her fingers and impossible to curl her hand into a fist. 

‘How long does it take to heal?’ she whispered to Clark. 

‘It’ll feel mostly normal again by lunch tomorrow,’ he said gently. ‘Don’t worry about Quidditch — you’ll be okay.’ 

‘But what about you?’ she asked, clutching the back of his robes in her good hand as he guided her up the stairs towards the Fat Lady’s portrait. ‘You’re captain and you’re getting _tortured_ like this every night! Your hand won’t even _work_ properly once it’s over!’ 

‘We go to a magic school Kara,’ said Clark with a hint of dry amusement. ‘I could break my hand and it’ll be healed in an instant. My second year, I lost all the bones in my arm and regrew them in a night. This is nothing.’ 

‘You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t hurt,’ said Kara. ‘It’s me.’ 

‘I didn’t say that,’ said Clark. ‘I’m just saying that you don’t have to worry. I’ve survived worse.’ 

‘So have I,’ Kara shot back and Clark’s eyes darted towards Cisco and Wally to make sure they hadn’t heard. 

‘I don’t remember the password,’ groaned Wally. 

‘Myrtlesap,’ said Kara quickly. The Fat Lady’s eyes took in her Hufflepuff uniform but after a second, waved it off uncaringly and swung open to let them through. Wally clambered through first, Cisco waving the three of them an exhausted goodbye before hurrying down the stairs to head back to the Ravenclaw common room. 

‘Let me help you,’ said Clark, jumping through the portrait hole first but Kara shook him off. 

‘It’s okay, I can walk fine now.’ She climbed through and followed him into the warm, red and gold decorated circular room, full of dark red armchairs, faded red quilts, a crackling fire and eight people scattered around the room. Some were asleep, some dozing, some distractedly doing homework and a couple just sitting and staring into the fire but as soon as Wally entered the room, Clark and Kara moments after, everyone jolted to life. 

‘Guys, you’ve been gone hours!’ said Lucy, her expression a mixture of relieved and anxious. 

‘She stopped us a whole hour later than last night,’ said Clark, almost instinctually moving to the sofa where Lois was sitting and dropping down beside her, letting her pull his head down to her lap and card her fingers through his hair. ‘I think it was because there were more of us.’ 

‘Lois, James and Lucy told us about what she’d done to Clark last night,’ said Winn, almost tripping over a stack of books in his haste to get to Kara, James not far behind him. ‘Are you okay? Did she do the same thing?’ 

‘Yeah, she did the same thing,’ said Kara tiredly, holding out her hand so that they could see. 

‘Oh my God,’ said Winn in barely a murmur, not even making a remark when Lena shoved him out of the way to take Kara’s hand. Behind the tears that came bubbling to the surface when she saw the scars, Lena’s eyes were filled with a roaring anger that Kara hadn’t expected. 

‘She can’t do this,’ she said, her voice quivering as she spoke. ‘She can’t — you have to tell someone! Marrow, or J’onzz or Kenes!’

‘We can’t,’ said Clark, sitting up and leaning forward on his knees. ‘None of the teachers have any kind of power over her. 

‘Maybe Kenes does,’ said Cat, the sharp green of her Slytherin uniform an odd contrast to the red of the armchair she was sitting on. ‘But he’s not here. He hasn’t been at school since the start of term feast, he told Clark and I he wasn’t going to be back for almost a month and a half and that he’d meet with us after that.’ 

‘Sawyer?’ said Clark, catching sight of his Beater standing a little aside from the main action by the armchair Lucy was curled in. ‘What’re you doing here?’ 

‘I was doing Charms homework when Luce told these guys what had happened,’ she said. ‘I wanted to stay. Make sure you were okay.’ She paused, eyes flickering to Kara. ‘ _Both_ of you,’ she added. 

‘Thanks Maggie,’ said Kara softly, hesitantly taking a step forward to the one person who hadn’t said a word since she and Clark had walked in, and instead had been standing by the arm of the sofa and staring at a spot behind Kara’s head. 

‘Alex,’ said Kara, her voice shaking a little as she spoke. ‘Alex, look at me. I’m okay.’ 

‘Let me see,’ said Alex and Kara knew instantly that whatever Alex was feeling, it went _far_ beyond anger. Her voice was low, quiet, emotionless, and very, very steady. Kara let her hand fall from Lena’s but it had barely been in the air half a second before Alex’s fingers caught it, ever so gentle and careful, holding it still. Kara watched her sister’s face carefully — it seemed as though everyone in the room was doing the same. 

Despite her high grades and status as Quidditch captain, everyone who knew Alex Danvers knew that she wasn’t necessarily a _star pupil_ , even though if you met her for the first time now, that would appear to be the case. Her first three years at Hogwarts saw Alex as a troublemaker to go down in history, always breaking the rules, always sneaking out, always ignoring curfew and pulling pranks, getting detentions, playing dirty in Quidditch and getting into midnight duels with other students. She had a fierce temper and a powerful but dangerous instinct to draw her wand at any flare of anger. The only reason she hadn’t been suspended or expelled was her top notch grades that excelled everybody else in her year. However, come her fourth year, she had helped Clark and Kara rescue an Azkaban prisoner who had been a close friend of the Zor-El family, and also, as it turned out, Alex’s parents. He’d remarked at one point, how much Alex reminded him of Jeremiah, her father who had disappeared shortly after the Toymaker’s downfall. That one interaction sparked Alex to re-evaluate what kind of student she was at Hogwarts. She’d turned a new leaf, but the reckless, emotion driven, wand at the ready Alex that had walked the halls of the castle for three years was never _entirely_ gone and Kara knew it. 

So Alex being so calm at this precise moment in time? It wasn’t really very comforting. 

‘Alex,’ Kara said again but she fell silent when Alex glanced up to properly look at her. Her lips were pressed together tightly and there was cold, cold fury in her eyes. If Kara had thought Lena had been angry, Alex was something else entirely. 

‘Three hours?’ said Alex and for the first time, her voice shook. ‘She made you guys do this for _three hours_?’ 

‘I’m oka — ’ Kara started to say again but Alex pushed past her, wand already clutched tightly in her hand. 

‘Danvers, don’t!’ shouted Maggie, jumping off the edge of the armchair. 

‘Alex!’ said Lucy, alarmed. 

‘Alex, you can’t do anything to her!’ said Winn desperately. 

‘Like hell I can’t!’ said Alex, but before she could move towards the portrait hole, Kara stumbled over a discarded Quidditch uniform and grabbed Alex’s arm forcefully, gasping loudly in pain as she realised too late she’d used her injured hand. It was that that seemed to break Alex out of her anger blinded haze and she whirled around with wide, anxious eyes to ensure that she hadn’t hurt her sister. 

‘It’s okay,’ said Kara quickly. ‘Just … still tender.’ 

‘I’m supposed to be able to protect you,’ said Alex, her expression having lost its venomous rage and now instead, helpless and incredulous. ‘I can’t — how do I protect you now?’ 

Kara didn’t reply, instead cradling her aching hand to her chest and curling into Alex, who’s arms instinctively enclosed around her, hugging her tight. 

‘We’ve gotta do something,’ said Lois, glancing over at Clark who barely looked strong enough to be staying upright let alone awake. 

‘It’s been a long day,’ said Clark softly, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. ‘For now? For now I think we all just need to get some sleep.’ 

To that, nobody had a better argument.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pls pls pls comment comment comment you have no idea how much it motivates me, you guys are so wonderful and i hope ppl actually still read this story given my sporadic, whenever the hell I get to it updates ahhh yikes LET ME KNOW IF YOU'RE STILL INVESTED!


	4. isolation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which most of the gang inexplicably leaves kara on her own, sans winn & lena, the tension with alex comes to a head during a very untimely moment and the first sign of serious danger appears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guyyyys i am sooo sorry I haven't updated in yonks, it's just that supergirl hasn't been captivating me as much in the last couple of episodes and the way they've treated kara / some storylines etc has left me kind of disheartened, even when i love the episode plots. 
> 
> but turns out what I had planned for this chapter ended up being in the last episode (kara being kind of isolated), I HAD IT FIRST FOR THE RECORD and emily (the lexie to my meredith, ily babes) motivated me to actually get another chapter posted (consider this your birthday present XXX) 
> 
> there's more development of kara & lena's friendship getting stronger (it's gonna get waaay stronger hella soon, trust me) and maggie is suddenly going to become surprisingly present in alex's life so yes, the ships are beginning to sail, just hang with me okay, I gotta keep the plot going too!

It would have been seriously wishful thinking to hope that everything would go back to the way it was, but that didn’t stop Kara from hoping anyway. She supposed that things going back to the way they were became a crazy fantasy back at the graveyard when Lex and Clark had had their showdown — nothing was ever going to be the same after that. 

The whole gang barely had time to hang out together since the night of Clark and Kara’s detention. The Hogwarts year was picking up with Quidditch practices, mountains of homework and Halser beginning to issue ‘Educational Decrees’ that quickly began to control every aspect of student life. Between his nightly detentions, being Quidditch captain and Head Boy, Clark was almost never seen anywhere other than class or Quidditch matches, and from what Kara could see, he, Lois, James and Lucy had retreated from the once close knit group they all had and were planning something on their own, something they refused to involve the others in. 

To Kara’s horror, Alex also pulled away, spending a great deal more time with Maggie Sawyer than with anyone else in the group. 

‘I’ll talk to her,’ Winn promised one night when he, Kara and Lena had snuck up to the Astronomy Tower. ‘She’s probably still blaming herself over what happened to you.’ 

‘I can’t lose her Winn,’ mumbled Kara, swallowing hard to try and halt the oncoming tears. ‘She’s … she’s _Alex._ ’ 

‘She loves you Kara,’ said Lena gently, tucking some stray strands of hair behind Kara’s ear. ‘Even if she’s becoming distant, you’re never going to lose her.’ 

‘There was a time when you would’ve said that about Lex,’ whispered Kara. A wave of shock rippled over Lena’s face, but instead of the sharp response Kara was expecting, she just reached out and took Kara’s hand. 

‘You’ve got us no matter what,’ she said instead, giving Winn a pointed look. He got the message and nodded enthusiastically, smiling widely at Kara. 

‘Always here!’ he promised. 

But the high note that the night ended on was crushed by the next morning. It was a Saturday, and come seven a.m., Kara and Lena were hurrying out to the Quidditch pitch, trying not to wake everyone, muffling their giggles and shoving each other every time someone laughed a little too loud.

It had been Lena’s idea. In the fairly short amount of time they’d known each other, Lena had picked up that the one thing that made Kara feel like the world wasn’t falling apart around her was getting to fly. After a lot of pleading with Clark, Lena had managed to convince him to give up Gryffindor’s early morning training slot so that she and Kara could have a couple of hours to pretend that their entire lives weren’t up in flames. 

‘I still don’t know how you got the pitch cleared on a Saturday morning,’ said Kara, shaking her head in disbelief as she pushed open the door of the broom cupboard. 

‘I have my ways,’ smirked Lena, gathering up her hair to tie it in a bun before taking one of the spare brooms from Kara. ‘Plus, I figured it would make you feel better about everything.’ 

Kara smiled, leaning against the cupboard a little shyly. ‘You didn’t have to do that Lena.’ 

Lena rolled her eyes. ‘I’m aware of that. Doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. Now come _on_ , let’s go!’ 

Kara grinned, heaving her broom onto her shoulders and hanging her arms over it as she followed out onto the pitch. This was good. Easy. Everything else seemed way too hard at the moment — getting Clark to even say three words to her was a mission, trying to find the time to manage fifth year homework between a ridiculous number of Quidditch practices was near impossible and getting Alex to spare one look at her? Not a chance. But with Lena — it was easier to smile, to laugh, to remember that they were just fifteen and didn’t actually have to save the world.

‘Oh,’ said Lena suddenly and Kara nearly crashed into her back. 

‘What?’ 

Already on the pitch, laughing and tossing a Quaffle between them and looping through the gold posts with ease were Alex and Maggie. Kara’s eyebrows furrowed as she watched them, her knees shaking as she saw the wide beam on Alex’s face, the way her nose crinkled when she burst into peals of laughter at something Maggie was saying, how she threw the Quaffle high into the air and took a hair raising dive towards the ground and pulled out from it perfectly, raising her eyebrows smugly at Maggie’s half hearted accusation of ‘Stop showing off Danvers!’ 

‘She’s smiling,’ said Kara in a low voice, trying not to look at Lena because she knew the expression on the other girl’s face would make her cry. ‘She’s smiling and happy and … and … I know I should be glad she’s happy because she’s my sister and I love her but she can’t even _look_ at me and it would be so much easier if she was angry at everyone else too but — ’

‘Kara, don’t do this to yourself,’ begged Lena. 

‘She _hates_ Maggie!’ said Kara, her voice rising as instead of sadness, the same frustration she’d felt in Halser’s classroom started to build in the pit of her stomach. ‘They’ve loathed each other for years and now Alex is just spending every minute of every day with her? She’s playing Quidditch with her _nemesis._ What _is_ this, how can she be talking to _Maggie Sawyer_ and not me?’ 

That’s when Maggie noticed them. She immediately flew to the ground, touching down on the pitch a couple of feet in front of them and offering them a slightly breathless smile. 

‘Hey!’ she said, glancing over at Alex who was hopping off her broom and walking slowly (deliberately slowly) towards them. ‘You guys had the same idea as us, huh?’ 

‘Guess so,’ said Kara flatly, her eyes fixed on her sister. 

‘Clark had the pitch booked for practice,’ said Lena, her gaze flickering nervously between Alex and Kara. ‘I convinced him to let us have it — how’d you know it would be empty?’ 

‘Oh, we were both just up early,’ said Maggie, nodding at Alex. ‘We saw that no-one was out there and figured we’d make the most of it. We’ve been here for almost an hour though so we’ll head off — pitch is all yours.’ 

‘Thanks,’ said Lena, nudging Kara with a pointed glare. 

‘Yeah, thanks,’ said Kara, still looking at Alex. 

Maggie glanced uncomfortably at Alex, then Kara, before tugging Alex’s jersey sleeve and gesturing to the castle. ‘C’mon Danvers, let’s get some breakfast. I uh — see you Lena, little Danvers.’ 

‘Bye Maggie,’ said Kara. ‘Alex.’ Her voice was a little louder on Alex’s name, more forceful and with definite anger glazed over the words, so emphatic that Alex paused, almost looked over at her, before brushing past Lena and Kara and hurrying away. 

Kara’s glare was so frying, for a minute, Lena wondered if lasers were going to shoot out of her eyes.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Another week passed after that, one where Kara’s frustration began rising to an almost boiling point, a week where she could barely bring herself to get out of bed in the morning, pay attention in class, be invested in Quidditch, try and complete the monster of a Potions essay Professor Carr had given them, let alone muster up the energy to find the root of why Alex, Clark, Lois, Lucy and James had all suddenly decided to abandon her. 

Thankfully, Winn and Lena refused to disappear. Once, when Kara didn’t show for breakfast, Lena ended up tracking her down in her dormitory and dragging her out of bed, Winn waiting for them down in the common room with the excuse ‘You best believe I would’ve helped her but the staircases don’t let guys in the girls’ dormitories.’ 

‘All the more reason to be gay,’ Lena had joked, causing Winn to snort and Kara to splutter with a mixture of surprise and amusement. 

The two of them softened the blow slightly of being left behind by everybody else she cared about. Unfortunately, neither of them were in the same house as Kara, nor did they play Quidditch, which meant that when it was announced that Hufflepuff would play Ravenclaw on Saturday, Kara knew that things with Alex were almost inevitably going to come to a head. 

‘I can’t face her,’ groaned Kara on Friday night as the three of them sat in the Astronomy Tower. 

‘Don’t play,’ said Winn immediately. 

‘Pretend to break your arm?’ suggested Lena with a shrug. 

‘ _Really_ break your arm!’ Winn added, receiving a shove from Lena. 

‘I have to go out there though,’ said Kara, hugging her knees to her chest tightly. ‘I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of me chickening out.’ 

‘You’re talking about her like she’s your _nemesis_ Kara,’ said Lena, arching an eyebrow. 

‘Yeah, well if _her_ nemesis is suddenly going to be her best friend, her old best friend might as well take the open position,’ said Kara bitterly, letting out an annoyed huff. 

Saturday morning arrived in a hurry, sharp with icy November winds and tinges of frost in the grass that crunched loudly under the weight of a Quidditch boot. Any warmth was currently absent, the sun hiding behind dark grey clouds that were quickly covering any comforting blue in the sky. 

Kara grimaced as she surveyed the weather, her stomach rolling a little as she spotted Alex already warming up, weaving skilfully between the goal posts. Kara was a little glad she hadn’t taken Lena and Winn’s advice, avoiding breakfast. 

‘You ready Danvers?’ 

Kara glanced over her shoulder, managing a half smile at another fifth year Hufflepuff named Barry Allen, the team Seeker. 

‘As ready as I’ll ever be I guess,’ sighed Kara, eyeing Alex, who had now soared so high that she was barely a speck in the air. 

‘Hey, we got this,’ said Barry optimistically, nudging Kara gently. ‘We’ve got a hell of a team.’ 

‘Just promise me you’ll catch the Snitch as quickly as possible,’ begged Kara. 

Barry’s eyes furrowed in confusion but he nodded. ‘Well, that _is_ the aim. With this weather, who knows. I’ll either be blown into the distance or freeze in mid-air if the sun doesn’t show up anytime soon.’ 

‘Enough yapping, let’s go team!’ called their captain, a seventh year named Ella Peters, swinging her leg over her broom and kicking off the ground, zooming up into the overcast skies with the rest of her team following in suit. From all around them, the crowds in the stands were screaming and cheering, and as Kara soared up into the clouds, the faces were a blur, just a sea of blue and yellow spread in a ring below her. Once she stopped and took a moment to gaze down at her and her friends’ usual spot in the stands, she spied Winn, Lena and to her surprise slight, Clark, Lois, Lucy and James. She spotted Maggie there too, laughing with Lucy, but that was less of a surprise. The two of them had blue sweatshirts on, evidently supporting Alex. 

_Ravenclaw_ , Kara thought to herself sternly. _They’re not taking sides between you, they’re just supporting a house._

Winn had two yellow stripes of paint on his cheeks, holding up a sign that read _GO BADGERS_ , enchanted so that the lettering flickered between yellow and black. Lena was also supporting Hufflepuff, wearing what looked like a Hufflepuff Quidditch jersey but from what Kara could see, it had a different design than her own, and she wasn’t sure where Lena would’ve gotten a Quidditch jersey from a house that wasn’t hers, but the thought the two had put into supporting her made her smile nevertheless. Lois wasn’t sporting any house colours, obviously deciding not to try and choose between the two Danvers sisters, and instead had one of Clark’s old jackets pulled tight around her. Kara suppressed a grin. If the two of them weren’t back together, they would be soon — they _sucked_ at being broken up. Her spirits rose even more when she realised that Clark and James, despite being closer in age to Alex and the fact that two of their teammates were supporting Ravenclaw, were both wearing Hufflepuff scarves and had badgers painted on their cheeks. Kara let a soft chuckle slip past her lips, feeling much warmer than she had before and she was fairly sure it had nothing to do with the temperature going up. 

She swerved away as Professor Kelts blew her whistle to attract the teams’ attention. The teams positioned themselves in the air above the mid-field circle painted on the grass, and Kara glanced up to see Alex hovering in the exact opposite spot to her. She tried not to groan. She’d always liked the fact that she and Alex played the same position in Quidditch — they’d always had fun marking each other and trying to out-do the other’s flying, but right now, Kara would’ve done near _anything_ to be marking anyone else in the Ravenclaw team. 

Alex flexed her hands around her broomstick handle, seemingly avoiding Kara’s gaze before flying into the centre of the circle when Kelts ordered ‘Captains, shake hands.’ Alex and Ella did so, Kelts then waving her hand in the signal for the Keepers to take their place by the goals. 

‘ _And that was Danvers and Peters shaking hands — both have been playing Quidditch for four years here at Hogwarts. Peters was drafted her second year, replacing Teddy Fitzgerald as Keeper, the latter of whom graduated from Hogwarts after the previous year. Alex Danvers, as most of you will know, was one of the three first year students to be recruited onto their house teams the very year the first year Quidditch ban was lifted. This is Danvers’ first year as Captain, so you know she’s gunning for that trophy, but of course, it’s Peters’ last year at Hogwarts so we can count on this being quite a fight.’_

A fifth year Slytherin named Linda Park was commentating the match. Kara let her gaze wander over to her for a moment, smiling a little wryly, remembering back in their third year when Barry and Linda had gone on a sort of date at Hogsmaede one weekend. Turns out, like Kara and James, the two were not so well matched romantically. 

‘Everyone ready?’ called Kelts.

There was a moment’s silence on the pitch in which the players all blocked out the cheers, the encouragements and discouragements, the hooting and yelling from the stands, waiting solely for the whistle. It shrieked through the tense air and the Quaffle went flying upwards. 

The sky exploded with action — 

Patty Spivot, another Hufflepuff chaser, swooped down to catch the Quaffle before it had even soared up to the others players level, not waiting to even give Ravenclaw a chance — 

‘ _Sixth year Patty Spivot moves in for a fantastic intercept! Been on the team two years now and certainly proved her place on it!_ ’ 

— while Kara and the other Chaser, seventh year Laurel Lance, both flew to their instructed positions for one of the opening Hufflepuff plays that Ella had devised — 

_‘And Kara Danvers and Laurel Lance are moving into place, we can see now that this is one of Ella Peters’ famous strategies. This captain is known for her devious plays which won Hufflepuff the Quidditch cup two years ago! She’s stuck with the same strong team she’s had for the past couple of years, though we didn’t get to see them in action last year with the Triwizard Tournament. Now for those of you who’ve been living under a rock, or who happened to be in their first year here at Hogwarts, yes, Ravenclaw Captain Alex Danvers and Hufflepuff Chaser Kara Danvers are indeed sisters. Alex is in her sixth year, Kara in fifth, and though we’ve only had one year of them both playing for their house teams, we now know very well that Quidditch skills runs in the family. Which Danvers sister are you rooting for, folks?’_

Kara glanced over her shoulder, watching as Alex’s eyes flicked between Patty and Laurel who were tossing the Quaffle between them, using expert flying skills to dissuade the other two Ravenclaw Chasers trying to intercept. The Ravenclaw beaters were zooming round the sides of the pitch, attempting to strategically catapult Bludgers toward the Hufflepuff team. 

Kara saw a lot of the Ravenclaw team scramble to catch up to Hufflepuff’s firing start, but Alex didn’t seem alarmed. Although taken by surprise, she was calm and zipped across the field with purpose, giving her team fierce but clear orders to attempt an intercept between Laurel and Patty’s skilful passes. 

‘Now Kara!’ Patty shouted from across the pitch and Kara dived from high above the rest of the action, her eyes fixed carefully on Laurel’s strong pass and she caught it easily mid dive, pulling up sharply in front of the goal and hauling the Quaffle towards the far left hoop, punching the air with her fist when it soared through it beautifully. 

‘ _Despite Alex Danvers’ best efforts to get her team caught up to the quick Hufflepuff start, the badgers’ Chasers knew what they were doing and brought Kara Danvers in for an incredible goal, successfully pulling off a new Ella Peters play. Hufflepuff - 10, Ravenclaw - 0._ ’ 

Kara saw a flash of gold and her attention flew to Barry, who’d apparently seen the same thing. He snapped his head in her direction, focusing his gaze on the fluttering golden ball and leaning lower on his broom, speeding towards it. 

‘ _And Barry Allen’s seen the Snitch_!’ 

The Hufflepuff crowd’s volume skyrocketed, starting to chant Barry’s name … but out of the corner of her eye, Kara saw something round and rock-like zoom towards Barry. 

‘Look out!’ she yelled, also flattening herself onto her broom handle and whooshing towards Barry, skidding to a halt in front of him and the Bludger only _just_ swished past her arm, its speed tearing the side of her Quidditch jersey and leaving a slight graze on her skin. She shivered as the sharp cold hit the exposed wound but did a 180 in mid air in time to see one of the Hufflepuff Beaters (Tommy Clement) send the Barry-aimed Bludger flying to the Ravenclaw end of the pitch. 

The crowd whooped delightedly. 

‘ _Kara Danvers with a terrific diversion, saving Barry Allen’s butt right there, I gotta say. It does look like that was a bit of a close shave there with the Bludger, it seems like Kara might’ve caught a bit of a hit but it doesn’t seem to be too bad — nice work, Danvers._ ’ 

‘Kara, are you okay?’ asked Barry anxiously. 

‘I’m fine, go get the Snitch!’ said Kara, ignoring the faint throbbing in her arm. 

‘Kara, what the hell were you thinking?’ 

Kara’s gaze snapped up to see Alex hovering maybe three feet in front of her, a twinge of worry on her face. 

‘Why do you care?’ said Kara bluntly, clutching the handle of her broom tightly. 

‘That was Barry’s Bludger, not yours!’ Alex said sharply. ‘You’re lucky you didn’t get a full on hit.’ 

‘It’s called teamwork,’ Kara fired back. ‘In case you didn’t know: that’s when you’re actually _there_ when people need you.’ 

‘Are you kidding me?’ demanded Alex. ‘You want to do this _now_?’ 

‘Well it’s not like you’re around for us to do it any other time,’ growled Kara, edging forwards a little so that she and Alex were only a foot apart. 

‘ _And — what’s this folks? It seems like the Danvers sisters are having a bit of an argument … in the middle of a Quidditch match? Surely they know better than that._ ’ 

‘Yeah Kara, surely we know better than that!’ said Alex frustratedly, sitting back on her broom with carefully practiced balance and roughly pushing back hair from her face. ‘Look, I don’t know what to tell you — ’

‘How about why you haven’t spoken to me in two weeks?’ said Kara, voice rising. ‘Or why Maggie’s suddenly your new best friend?’ 

A strange expression flickered briefly on Alex’s face and her eyes glanced momentarily towards the stands where Maggie was, her and the others all gazing up at the sisters in confusion. 

‘That’s not your business,’ said Alex, snapping back to the confrontation with Kara. 

‘Since _when_?’ exclaimed Kara. ‘Since when has your life not been my business? Since when have you not told me _everything_ or always wanted to know how _my_ day’s been, or helped me with my homework or made sure I get enough sleep and eat three meals a day and keep up with Quidditch — ’

‘Well maybe I don’t feel like being your personal babysitter anymore!’ Alex hissed but immediate regret flared up in her eyes the moment it left her mouth. Kara stared at her, a disbelieving ‘ _huh_ ’ leaving her mouth involuntarily as her breath hitched in her throat. 

‘Kar, that’s not what I meant — ’ Alex began. 

‘Are you sure?’ said Kara, wishing she could kick herself for sounding so broken, for the way she had to blink back tears and swallow down the hollow feeling in her chest at Alex’s words. 

‘ _And Ravenclaw has caught up with two successive goals as all of Peters’ defensive plays seem to involve three Chasers, one of whom is having a pretty untimely altercation with her big sister._ ’ 

‘Hey!’ the Ravenclaw Beater, Ryan Larsson, shouted at them. ‘Danvers and little Danvers — can you have your girly heart to heart later? Are we playing Quidditch or what?’ 

‘Shut up Larsson!’ Alex and Kara yelled back in unison. 

‘ _Like the muggles say, don’t count your chickens because Hufflepuff is back at it, jumping in to tie with Ravenclaw in a superb goal by Laurel Lance! It’s now neck and neck — 20 points each side. Both Keepers look set on not letting any more goals creep in, so it’s safe to assume it’s down to the Seekers now!_ ’ 

‘Kara, that wasn’t supposed to sound like that,’ Alex said desperately. 

Kara opened her mouth to say something but suddenly, a very strange sensation swept through her body. She gasped in shock, suddenly feeling cold and distant and she grasped her broom tightly in an attempt to ground herself. It was as though her consciousness was at the back of her mind, that something _else_ was there instead of _her._ She felt almost happy, peaceful, content, like she was floating, and she was only dimly aware that there was shouting and cheering and whistles being blown around her. But a small part of her felt uneasy, a part that wanted to fly, wanted to say something to Alex but the thought, the instruction for what she wanted to do wasn’t going further than her brain — her mouth wouldn’t open, her hands wouldn’t move. Kara was faintly aware that she was glaring — she didn’t want to glare, she wasn’t angry, hadn’t she been upset? Why was she glaring?

‘…Kara?’ said Alex uncertainly, reaching out to touch Kara’s arm. 

A voice in Kara’s head, one that didn’t belong to her, low and half threatening, half soothing murmured ‘Don’t let her touch you.’ and Kara jerked away from Alex’s hand instinctively. The uneasy part of Kara was getting louder, more anxious and the foreign voice in her head was becoming more and more threatening. 

‘You never wanted a sister,’ Kara said involuntarily. The loud, fighting part of herself was screaming inwardly now, shouting _I don’t want to say this, this isn’t me, Alex, you have to know that this isn’t me_! but the words wouldn’t reach her lips. 

‘What are you talking about?’ said Alex, her eyes widening in earnest and worry. ‘Kara, the minute you came and lived with us, I couldn’t imagine that I’d lived all of my life without you,’ 

‘Liar,’ snarled Kara. ( _I know you’re not lying Alex, I know it, it’s not me, please understand —_ ) 

‘I’m not lying,’ Alex tried to say but Kara cut her off. 

‘You’ve always been jealous of me,’ said Kara. ‘Jealous that your parents liked me better, jealous of my relationship with Clark, that I was so close to _The Boy Who Lived._ ’ 

‘No — ’

‘You were jealous that _my_ family, my _real_ family, had a legacy and yours were just nobodies in the resistance, just regular wizards who did nothing but keep an eye on a little boy who lived on a muggle farm.’ ( _Alex, please see this isn’t me, I don’t know what’s happening —_ ) 

‘Kara, no, _never_ — ’

‘ _Barry Allen and Colton Reves are now going head to head in an attempt to catch the Snitch — watch out folks, it looks like they’re heading to the stands, now no yanking anyone off their broom in the name of house spirit you guys, we’re better than that! Allen’s whizzing past the teachers, Reves is catching up quick, and the Snitch is back on the pitch, there they go — it’s a race to the finish line, who’s going to get there first?_ ’ 

‘You’re always telling me to keep who I really am a secret,’ Kara said, her voice low and dangerous. ‘But you’re just afraid that I won’t need you anymore, once I tell the world that Kara Zor-El exists.’ ( _Oh my god, who is this, how do they know, Alex help me please —_ ) 

‘Kara, I just want to protect you!’ said Alex desperately, looking anxious and confused. 

‘The legacy that _I_ have makes _you_ feel worthless,’ smirked Kara. ( _Alex, you’re not worthless, you’re everything to me —_ ) 

‘No,’ said Alex, suddenly defiant and she edged her broom closer to Kara’s. ‘No, I’m proud of you. I’m proud of who you are.’ 

‘I’m finally going to be free of you,’ said Kara with a twisted grin, and the part of Kara that was fighting desperately against whatever control this was screamed for help, and if the sound could have reached her mouth, her throat would be hoarse with how much she was crying and yelling but nothing would come out, even when her hand reached beneath her robes and pulled out her wand, when Alex’s eyes widened in fear and she backed away from Kara a little, when the threatening voice in Kara’s head said _‘Kill her._ ’ 

‘ _No_!’ Kara screamed and her eyes flew open and all sensation came back to Kara all at once, tears overflowing down her cheeks and fear gripping at her chest and a sick feeling bubbling from the pit of her stomach and suddenly, she felt faint, her head began to spin and her wand fell through her limp fingers. Before she could regain her balance on her broom, she rolled over and went hurtling to the ground, the wind rushing through her hair and the icy air cutting into her skin like knives. 

‘ _Kara_!’ Alex shouted. 

‘ _What the hell is going on here — oh my_ ** _god_** _, Kara Danvers is falling from her broom, Alex is flying after her trying to catch her but I don’t know if she’s going to get there fast enough — Professor, why isn’t anyone out there —_ ’

Kara heard commotion explode from the stands, both Barry and Laurel were yelling her name, she heard Lena scream, Winn shouting at Alex to fly faster and then someone was grabbing her arm and slowing her fall, she was vaguely aware of the sound of boots thumping onto the ground and pulling her into a secure grip, and Clark was shouting from the stands ‘Alex, is she okay?’ 

‘Kara — wake up, come on Kara, open your eyes.’ 

‘It wasn’t me,’ Kara croaked and Alex let out a tearful laugh of relief. 

‘Oh thank _god_ — ’

‘It wasn’t me Alex.’ 

‘I know Kar,’ murmured Alex gently, stroking her forehead. ‘I’m here okay? I’ve got you.’ 

Kara’s already blurry vision flickered and above her and Alex, she saw Barry swoop and hold his hand high above his head, heard Linda crow ‘ _And Barry Allen’s caught the Snitch! Hufflepuff wins 170-20!_ ’ and vaguely registered other people dropping down beside her and Alex, felt Lena grasp her hand tightly, before the entire world faded to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bless all your lovely souls, pls comment, I promise I'll get a new chapter up asap bc I have plans for what I def want to come next and the pace is defs gonna pick up after this chapter, just stick with me you lovely folks XXX


	5. kara's secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> there's a time for the secrets & there's a time for the truth; in which kara's secret finally comes out after thirteen years, clark & alex are extremely overprotective and the gang realise that kara actually can lie when she needs to (and she's been doing it the entire time they've known her!)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so. 
> 
> I am so freakin sorry that i haven't updated this in (3? 4?) months but okay I do have an excuse! I just moved out of home and into my university dorm and my first semester has just finished; I was taking extra courses and was very stressed out and had a really enormous workload so I just haven't had time to write anything let alone this fic. 
> 
> Also, I didn't manage to keep up w supergirl 2b so I've only just finally caught up with the show (literally I hadn't watched anything from 2x12) so I'd lost a lot of motivation to write these characters. But! I'm on mid-year break right now (well ... almost, I have my last exam on tuesday!) and I'm hoping I can pump out some more of this story and next semester I'm only taking 3 courses so I will have time to write! 
> 
> I hope you haven't all given up on this story and will hang on for this crazy ride with me! I love you all!

Kara remembered the day her parents died so vividly, it always felt as though it had been yesterday. 

She remembered the day had been like any other. She’d been woken up early in the morning by her dad tickling her, she’d recognised the smell of her mother’s blueberry pancakes the minute she rushed downstairs. The weather had been clear and sunny but still chilled. It had been Halloween — Kara remembered she’d asked her mother if they could go buy candy for the trick or treaters but Alura had gently reminded her daughter that the muggles wouldn’t be able to see their house. In the evening, while her parents were listening to a specific radio channel for updates on the resistance, Kara remembered sneaking out the back door to go play in the meadow down the road from their house. It was always filled with flowers, no matter what time of the year, and Kara loved it because the sun hit the trees in such a magical way between four fifty and five twenty five in the Autumn. 

She’d noticed the group in the black hoods and scary masks walk down the road, but it was Halloween, and she’d assumed it was a costume. She hadn’t been paying enough attention to realise that all the muggle children and their parents running around the village square couldn’t see the group in question, or that every hooded member was twirling a wand in their figures. 

They hadn’t paid any attention to her. To them, she looked like any other child. If they had looked closer, they would’ve realised she wasn’t dressed up in a costume, she was young but had no parents with her, she was the spitting image of the Zor-El female line and that she was levitating flower petals in her palm. 

She’d been too absorbed in the magic of the sun disappearing beyond the horizon to notice the bright, blinding flash of green light from the second storey bedroom window of her house, hadn’t been paying attention to the village square to see the hooded group vanish from where they were standing, one by one. 

Kara hadn’t even realised something was wrong until the sky was black and the stars were twinkling and she’d turned around to run back home and suddenly saw that all the lights were off in the house. Dread filled her stomach. She’d made it to the back door and was about to push it open with small, shaking hands when a loud crack made her jump a foot in the air. She turned around to see an old man with half moon spectacles and a long beard holding the hand of a young boy, perhaps two years older than her. He had messy black hair, murky blue eyes and glasses, but his most distinctive feature was a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. 

And Kara instantly knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

 

 

* * *

 

 

When Kara came floating back into consciousness, she immediately became aware of a soft hum of hushed chatter around her. She felt a weight on her right hand, let her eyes open just barely due to how heavy her eyelids were, and realised Lena’s fingers were tangled in hers, Lena sitting in a rickety wooden chair by Kara’s bedside. She wasn’t, however, looking in Kara’s direction, instead had her attention focused on Winn who was sitting cross legged on the end of Kara’s bed. Kara vaguely registered that Winn was talking but she couldn’t make out what exactly he was saying, he was speaking far too quietly and she let her eyes flicker shut again as she began to feel an oncoming headache. 

‘Kara?’ 

Alex’s voice was barely a whisper, Kara knew that no-one else had probably heard it. She then also registered that her head was cushioned by Alex’s arm which was wrapped tight around her shoulders as Alex lay beside Kara in the bed. 

A wave of relief rushed through Kara at the now obvious fact that Alex didn’t seem to be avoiding her anymore. 

‘Hey,’ she said. Her throat was dry and it came out as a inaudible croak but it still caught everyone’s attention. 

‘Oh thank Merlin,’ breathed Lena, the legs of the chair scraping across the floor as she startled to her feet. 

‘Kara!’ gasped Winn. 

By now, Kara’s eyes were open properly and she noticed Lois and Maggie standing at the end of the bed, Lucy on a seat beside Lena, James perched on a stool near Winn, and Clark standing near Alex, pacing a little anxiously. 

‘How’re you feeling, Kar?’ murmured Alex. 

‘Like someone reached into my head and jumbled everything,’ grumbled Kara, nuzzling her face into Alex’s shoulder as the bright lights of the hospital wing made her head spin. 

‘What happened?’ asked Clark, an edge to his voice as he spoke. ‘All we saw was you and Alex arguing and then — ’ He stopped, swallowing visibly and glancing away. 

‘Then you just fell,’ Lena finished, her voice shaking a little as she spoke and her grip on Kara’s hand tightened. ‘It all happened so quickly, it was lucky Alex acted as fast she did or she may not have caught you in time.’ 

Alex stiffened beside Kara, and Kara didn’t have to look at her face to see the rush of emotions that crossed it. 

‘You’ve never, _ever_ lost your balance while flying,’ said Winn softly, his eyes wide and concerned. ‘Not once.’ 

‘Not even when I was first teaching you,’ added Alex, quiet. 

‘I didn’t lose my balance,’ said Kara, trying not to shiver at the thought of what had happened. ‘I — I lost _control_.’ 

‘Of your broom?’ asked James, eyebrows knitting together in surprise. ‘Was it enchanted or something?’ 

‘No — of … _myself_ ,’ said Kara,  subconsciously squeezing Lena’s hand in an attempt to dissipate the fear that was bubbling inside of her. ‘I was … I was cold and it was like I’d been pushed to the back of my own mind — I was watching myself do things I didn’t want to.’ She sat up abruptly, whirling round to meet Alex’s eyes. ‘Alex, the things I said — I didn’t mean … it wasn’t me, I — ’

‘Kara, calm down,’ said Alex, a fond smile gracing her tired features. She reached out and pulled Kara down to lie back on the bed. ‘I know. I could tell the minute it stopped being you.’ 

‘That sounds like the _Imperious Curse_ ,’ said Winn, his gaze immediately snapping to Lena and Alex for confirmation. 

‘He’s right,’ said Lois when neither of them replied. ‘Kara, did you hear a voice? In your head, telling your what to do?’ 

Kara nodded. 

‘Was it a man?’ asked Clark immediately. ‘Was it — was it Lex?’ 

Lena’s eyes flickered up at that and Kara felt light pressure on her hand again. 

‘No,’ said Kara. ‘It was a woman.’ 

‘Halser?’ asked Lucy, a flash of anger rippling over her face. 

‘No, not Halser,’ said Kara quickly. ‘I would’ve recognised her voice. This woman … I didn’t know who it was but she — ’ She sucked in a sharp breath, exchanging a wary look with Alex. ‘ — she knew me.’ 

‘Everything about you,’ added Alex, pinching the bridge of her nose, exhausted. She withdrew her hand from around Kara’s shoulders and sat up a little, let out a whistling sigh, and allowing her shoulders sag a little. ‘Clark,’ she said quietly. ‘Whoever this is _knows_ about Kara.’ 

Clark stopped pacing, looked up at Alex in alarm. ‘You mean — ?’ 

‘Yeah,’ murmured Alex. ‘Yeah, I mean _that._ ’

‘What exactly are you three talking about that the rest of us are missing here?’ asked Maggie, speaking for the first time and raising a confused eyebrow at the interaction between Clark and Alex. 

There was poignant silence in the air in which Clark, Alex and Kara’s gazes flickered between each other. The others waited, each with identically confused expressions on their face until Kara eventually spoke up, her voice still weak but certain. 

‘We should tell them.’ 

‘Kara,’ said Clark, immediately sounding weary. 

‘No, Clark, seriously,’ said Kara, shaking her head. ‘I know you and Alex are just trying to protect me but this has always been _my_ secret, yet somehow I’ve never had a say in how we deal with it.’ 

‘You were just a kid!’ Clarke argued. 

‘So were you!’ Kara shot back, her voice cracking with the strain and Lena tightened her hand around Kara’s again. 

‘Both of you calm down,’ murmured Alex. She glanced over at Kara, looking uncertain and tired. ‘It’s up to you,’ she said softly. ‘You’re fifteen now — old enough to decide whether or not to keep this hidden. I won’t stop you if you decide to tell them.’ 

‘There was never any reason to tell anyone before,’ said Kara, ‘but now? Now I think it might be important for people to know and I trust everybody here.’ 

‘Kara?’ Lena’s voice was quiet and confused and Kara glanced over her shoulder to meet her eye. There was distinct fear in Lena’s expression, and Kara couldn’t pinpoint what it was because of — fear of what Kara was going to say? Of what had just happened? Of the fact that Lex probably had something to do with it? Kara didn’t know what to say to reassure her so she offered her a small smile. 

‘So uh … everyone knows Clark’s story, right?’ she said after a few moments silence. 

There was a soft murmur of agreement — the whole wizarding world knew the story. It was basically a rhetorical question. 

A tightness began to form in Kara’s throat and the realisation hit her that this was the first time she was actually _telling_ anyone this, the _truth_ about her. Alex had already known by the time Kara had gone to live with the Danvers’, and those select Order members who knew had been told by Kenes over the years. Hell — nobody even knew that Kara and Alex weren’t biologically related; it had never been relevant or deemed _safe_ for Kara to tell people she was adopted.

It was an October evening, the sun was just creeping further below the horizon and a soft, peachy orange glow filled the hospital wing, making the corners of the metal bed frames shimmer and the white sheets on the beds seemed pink rather than bleached. Kara was suddenly reminded of the day in the meadow all those years ago, her first clear memory of Clark and Kenes, of the soft fragrance of the petals in her hand and the dampness of the cold grass below her legs. 

She wasn’t sure if the memory calmed her or made her feel more agitated. 

‘Do you want me to tell them?’ asked Alex, her voice barely above a murmur. 

‘No,’ said Kara quickly. ‘No … it’s … I’m fine.’ She took a deep breath before snapping her gaze up to look at the seven people around her. ‘The way the story goes, Clark was the sole survivor of the Zor-El mansion massacre twelve years ago, and five years later narrowly survived another attack at the Kent farm where the Toymaker was taken down by the Order. After surviving twice, the legend spread that he was The Boy Who Lived.’ Kara bit her lip. ‘That’s not _entirely_ true.’ 

‘What?’ said Lois, sounding astonished as she glanced over at Clark. Lucy and James too were staring at Clark in bewilderment, evidently stunned that whatever this ‘truth’ was, their years of friendship hadn’t warranted them knowing about it. 

‘It wasn’t mine to tell you guys,’ said Clark quietly. 

‘Clark did survive the Toymaker attack when he was ten — that much is true,’ said Kara, hurriedly continuing so that Lois, Lucy and James didn’t start hounding Clark with questions. ‘Alura and Zor — my …’ Kara paused. ‘… Clark’s aunt and uncle — survived the Zor-El massacre and went into hiding. They had Clark’s location in case of emergency and nobody … nobody ever thought that their Secret Keeper would reveal their location. But they were betrayed and the Toymaker came after them. He found out where Clark was but my, I mean — _Alura —_ sent out a message to the Order telling them that Clark was in danger. They got their in the nick of time to save him.’ 

‘Okay,’ said Maggie slowly. ‘I mean, that still sticks to the story everybody knows doesn’t it? Just with more detail … other than Alura and Zor surviving with Clark after the massacre.’ 

‘That’s the thing,’ said Kara. ‘Clark was never at the mansion the night of the massacre.’ 

Confused silence followed. 

‘So … that just got made up by rumours?’ said Lucy, furrowing her eyebrows. 

‘Not completely,’ said Kara. ‘A child _was_ at the mansion that night and _did_ survive … it just wasn’t Lara and Jor’s child. It was Alura and Zor’s.’ 

‘Alura and Zor El had a kid?’ echoed Maggie in surprise. ‘That was never in any of the records or history books! Who is he?’ 

‘Yeah, who’s the real Boy Who Lived who Clark’s been stealing the spotlight from all these years?’ said Lucy with a small smirk. 

Lois rolled her eyes slightly affectionately. Winn and Lena seemed to be the only ones who were doing the math in their head. 

‘It’s you, isn’t it?’ said Lena, her gaze focused on Kara. ‘You’re their child.’ 

The joking air that had slowly risen in the room vanished. 

Kara nodded. 

‘Wait … _what_?’ exclaimed James, his eyes widening and flitting between Clark, Kara and Alex. 

‘You’re not really Little _Danvers_?’ said Maggie, her eyebrows shooting upwards. 

‘I don’t understand,’ Lucy breathed out in barely a whisper. 

‘Guys, shush,’ said Lois sharply. ‘Kara … explain?’ 

Kara glanced over at Alex who nodded encouragingly. 

‘Clark’s my cousin,’ explained Kara in a small voice. ‘But he’s not Alex’s. The Order forged documents and magical family trees to make it look like there was a connection between the Kents and the Danvers — it was possible, because the Danvers are half bloods. Alura and Zor El were my parents and the day of the massacre, they had gone out. I was at the mansion when the Toymaker and his Puppets attacked, but my aunt Astra hid me and eventually, once they'd returned to the house and fought off the attackers, my father found me and we disapparated, going into hiding for the next five years. Clark had been born before the Toymaker had reached the height of his power, so his birth had been announced in the Daily Prophet, but I was bon in the middle of the war so there was no public announcement about my existence. So after the massacre, the Toymaker was determined to track down Clark and my parents because he knew they were still out there, but he and his followers didn’t know about me. By chance, I wasn’t near our house the night they came after my parents, and I survived. By the time I realised something was wrong, Clark and Kenes had come to get me.’ 

‘But … why does nobody know about you? Even now?’ asked Lena. 

‘Me,’ said Clark, smiling fondly at Kara. ‘I was ten. I knew this kind of thing would become legendary, and Kenes told me that I would be famous in the Wizarding World for having survived facing off with the Toymaker. He said me and Kara would go down in history, but when I looked over at her, she was this little, scared, seven year old girl who had just lost the only two people she had in the world and I couldn’t bear the thought that she would only ever be remembered for that for the rest of her life. I asked Kenes if he and the Order could keep her a secret — nobody knew about her yet, and if they just spread the story that all the things _she_ survived had been _me_ instead, nobody would ever have to know. The Danvers lived nearby and they had been Order members who’d explained my magic to me when I started to question it. I knew they had a daughter who was between mine and Kara’s age and I asked Kenes if Kara could live with them, so we would be able to keep in touch.’ 

‘From there, the secret was kept,’ said Alex with a shrug. ‘There was never any reason for anybody else to know the truth.’ 

The pointed silence between the group felt louder than anything Kara had ever heard before. Eventually, it was Winn who spoke up for the first time since Kara had woken up. 

‘How did you stand it?’ he whispered. 

‘Stand what?’ asked Kara.

‘Being friends with me,’ he said, his voice hoarse. ‘All these years, the day you sat next to me on the train — all that time you knew that my dad killed your _entire_ family and you never said _anything_! How did you stand being around me?’ 

‘Winn, _no_!’ insisted Kara, shaking her head. ‘It was never like that. I look at you and see my best friend. You’ve never — _never_ — been a reminder of anything other than that. I promise.’ 

‘Same here Winn,’ said Clark gently, placing a hand on Winn’s shoulder. ‘You’re family to us.’ 

Winn ducked his head, and Kara knew this conversation wasn’t over with that but she didn’t push it. 

‘So what now?’ she asked, brushing hair away from her eyes. ‘Everyone knows so … what do we do?’ 

‘Clark,’ Lois prompted. ‘Tell them.’ 

‘Tell us what?’ said Alex immediately, narrowing her eyes at Clark. ‘Is this why you were too good for us all of a sudden?’ 

‘It’s not like you have any right to judge there,’ Kara pointed out and the same odd expression from earlier during the Quidditch match reappeared on Alex’s face. 

‘We’ll …’ Alex swallowed. ‘You and I will talk about that later, Kar. Promise.’ 

Kara didn’t comment on the surprised but affectionate smile that graced Maggie’s features. 

‘We didn’t mean to suddenly pull away,’ Clark spoke up, ‘but everything happened so quickly.’ He took a seat on the edge of Kara’s bed and gestured for everybody to come in closer. ‘So we all know that Halser is _useless_ as a teacher and that she’s been sent in as Fudge’s spy to keep an eye on what’s going on.’ A sly smile crept onto Clark’s face and Kara was shocked at how _young_ he looked with the mischievous twinkle in his eye.

‘What’ve you been doing?’ asked Alex suspiciously. 

Lois grinned, nudging Clark. ‘If the Ministry’s not going to teach us how to protect ourselves from Lex, then it’s time we taught ourselves.’ 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pretty pretty pretty please leave me some comments to let me know that there are people still reading this and that I should actually continue because I'm pretty sure this story has been sitting here gathering dust and everyone's forgotten about it! i promise I haven't, I still love it with my whole heart!
> 
> the action (and the supercorp + sanvers) is about to reallllyy pick up!

**Author's Note:**

> bookmarks make me happy, kudos make my day and comments give me this warm fuzzy feeling inside so take your pick XX also yo totally give me headcanons/requests for what you want in the story!


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